Published: November 18, 2008 10:45 pm         

Hoosiers begin to find themselves in 60-57 victory over IUPUI

BLOOMINGTON — There were six possessions in the second half of Tuesday’s game where IUPUI had the ball and was only down by one point to Indiana at Assembly Hall.

And there were six possessions where the Jaguars came up empty.

Showing uncommon poise on the defensive end, the Hoosiers stymied the Jaguars just enough to escape with a 60-57 victory.

For a veteran team, the game might not mean much. But for Tom Crean’s team, the win offered a plethora of experiences.

“I don’t think I can describe what winning this way does for our confidence. We have to learn from all of our experiences,” Crean said.

“We were not close to our best night defensively in the second half. …We had to learn how to get the ball into the middle, get the ball reversed and get the ball in the short corner.”

After John Ashworth put in a layup with 2:51 remaining to cut the score to 58-57, the Jaguars (1-2) had the ball four times, only to be denied each time.

“I thought it came down to our lack of experience,” IUPUI Ron Hunter said. “We have none of those guys with this kind of experience. This was two young teams trying to find themselves.”

After Alex Young badly missed a three-pointer with 5 seconds remaining, the ball ended up in the hands of the smallest Hoosier,5-foot-11 walk-on Daniel Moore, which lead to forward Tom Pritchard quipping that he thought Moore got lucky.

After being fouled, Moore drained one free-throw with 1.2 seconds remaining and ran over to the bench to ask Crean if he should miss the second. Crean told him to make it, which Moore did. After that, Pritchard partially blocked Leroy Nobles desperation three-pointer from just inside of the halfcourt line as the Jaguar faithful called for a potential game-tying foul call.

Crean said he told Moore to make the shot because with more than a second remaining and up by two, there was too much risk of a fluke shot winning the game. But he also admitted that he has had no time to teach his team about situational basketball.

The inexperience showed in the final 3:16 as Moore’s free-throws were the only Hoosiers (2-0) points during that span. Nick Williams missed a jumper and a muffed pass from Moore to Pritchard resulted in a turnover with 27 seconds remaining.

“We are not trotting out three or four veteran guys. We still need to learn what a great shot is and know how to attack a zone,” Crean said.

“We are not spending a lot of time on zone defense because we have got to get [man-to-man] principles down. It is so different than anything you can possibly imagine as a veteran coach.”

Pritchard put up his second double-double in two collegiate games with 19 points and 10 rebounds. Kyle Taber added 5 points and 6 rebounds to help in the front court.

The backcourt of Williams, Devan Dumes and Matt Roth combined for 32 points, but shot 11-for-31 from the field against the 2-3 zone the Jaguars employed for most of the game.

“We have to learn how not to lose before we can learn how to win,” Crean said. “We would have been playing into their hands by living on the perimeter. We needed to get the ball into the middle.”

• Notes: Pritchard is the first freshman in IU history to start his career with double-doubles in his first two games. Jared Jeffries was the last IU player to start a season with two double-doubles in 2001-02. … Verdell Jones III left the game with an injured ankle. Crean said Jones was icing the ankle after the game, would not have been able to return to the game, but should be fine. … Indiana plays Notre Dame on Monday at the Maui Invitational.