Published: November 23, 2008 10:56 pm         

ISU men's basketball loses edge, game in second half against North Texas

TERRE HAUTE — The Indiana State men’s basketball team is learning the hard way what happens when intensity drops in a game.

The Sycamores were up by four against North Texas at the 13-minute mark of the second half, but nothing ISU did to build its lead was evident for the remainder of the game. The Mean Green rallied and dominated the remainder of the contest to earn an 80-69 victory in front of 3,320 at Hulman Center on Sunday.

It was ISU’s first home opening loss since 2001, which was also the last time the Sycamores started a

season 0-2.

“For about two-thirds of the game, we did some good things offensively and defensively, but then the intensity went down in our zone [defense], they started getting some offensive rebounds, and their athleticism kind of took over the game,” ISU coach Kevin McKenna said.

ISU’s worst fear came true against the athletic and aggressive Mean Green. North Texas outrebounded ISU by a 42-34 margin. Even worse was the Mean Green’s 14 offensive rebounds, which translated to a whopping 20 second-chance points — 14 scored in the second half alone.

During a key stretch in the middle of the second half, North Texas turned a four-point advantage into a 62-53 lead on a run based entirely on buckets created off of Mean Green offensive rebounds. ISU never recovered from that stretch.

“Not only do the second chance points hurt on the scoreboard, but they’re demoralizing. We had a few instances where we’d block a shot and they’d still score a few points off of it. We did everything right except control the glass,” McKenna said.

Rebounding was a point of emphasis going into the game, which made North Texas’ advantage on the glass even harder for the Sycamores to understand.

“It’s demoralizing when you play 20 seconds of good defense then some guy comes out of nowhere and gets an offensive rebound when we should have blocked him out. It was part of our intensity, we relaxed in the second half,” ISU center Josh Crawford said.

The Sycamores’ intensity deficit was evident even before North Texas began rebounding in droves. ISU let its defensive guard down and allowed North Texas guard Josh White to give the Mean Green confidence.

The sophomore guard scored eight points in a four-minute span at the midway point of the second half, as he helped fuel a 13-3 North Texas run that turned a 46-42 ISU lead into a 55-49 deficit.

“[White] has really been a glue guy for us. He’s only a sophomore, but he’s a leader for us. He made big plays to get us back in the game and he hit some more three’s late to stretch the lead out. He had a heady game,” North Texas coach Johnny Jones said.

McKenna was reluctant to blame ISU’s inexperience, but it remains a factor. McKenna said one way it was evident was in defensive communication in the second half.

“In the first half, our bench did a good job helping our guys with their rotations in our zone. In the second half, [the bench] was on the other end [of the floor] and they had to do the communicating on their own. I thought the intensity went down a bit,” McKenna said.

“I hate to use the excuse of playing inexperienced guys, but the reality is, we’ve got six guys out there that played significant minutes that have never played Division I basketball. Until they get that experience under their belts … we’re going to struggle,” he added.

Compounding matters for ISU was its tendency to hurry shots and make bad decisions on the offensive end to try and equal out the rebounding and defensive woes. The Sycamores had only three field goals in the final 8:55 of regulation.

“We need to be patient. They’d get a run and we’d try to match their bucket, it’s a natural tendency, but we should have pulled it out and ran the offense. We got good shots when we ran the offense,” Crawford said.

Four Sycamores reached double-figures in the loss, led by Carl Richard’s 17-point effort. The freshman also had four rebounds and two steals. Josh Crawford added 16 points, six rebounds and two blocks.

“The light bulb has kind of gone on for Josh. He’s been practicing harder and its carrying over into games. I think some of our younger players need to take his cue,” McKenna said.

After five lead changes and five ties in the first 11 minutes, an ISU offensive drought where it came up empty on 10 of 12 possessions helped North Texas nudge its way to a 25-18 advantage. ISU closed the gap to two by halftime as Crawford and Richard combined to score 13 of ISU’s last 15 points in the half.

Up to that point, rebounding hadn’t been a problem — ISU actually had a two-rebound advantage at the break and North Texas had just four offensive rebounds to that point. ISU had its best energy right after halftime when it opened the second half with a 7-2 run to take a 38-35 lead. Not only was ISU’s offensive clicking to that point, but defenders moved well to close down shooters in ISU’s zone defense.

It didn’t last as White’s deluge began at the 12:56 mark, kickstarting North Texas’ game-changing 13-3 run. The Mean Green eventually built a 67-53 lead and made its free throws down the stretch to ice the game.

ISU next plays host to Murray State on Wednesday.



North Texas 80

Player min fg 3pt ft r a pf tp

Odufawa 33 1-3 0-0 2-4 10 1 4 4

Hogans 23 3-4 0-0 1-3 10 0 2 7

Dennis 21 2-10 2-8 3-4 1 2 5 9

McCoy 20 2-5 2-4 0-0 2 1 1 6

White 34 6-15 4-6 0-0 8 1 0 16

Johnson 25 3-6 2-3 9-9 0 1 0 17

Thompson 20 2-8 0-3 0-0 3 1 2 4

Stewart 6 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 0 4 0

Tramiel 17 5-8 1-1 6-6 6 1 1 17

Howerton 1 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0

Totals 24-60 11-25 21-26 42 8 19 80

Indiana State 69

Player min fg 3pt ft r a pf tp

Crawford 32 7-10 2-3 0-0 6 0 3 16

Tunnell 26 1-7 1-4 4-4 5 0 4 7

Reed 39 4-16 2-4 1-2 2 5 2 11

Carter 34 4-15 1-4 3-3 9 1 2 12

Richard 31 5-7 0-0 7-8 4 1 2 17

Barlow 4 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0

Cutter 9 0-2 0-0 0-0 0 2 3 0

Martin 16 2-3 0-0 0-0 6 0 3 4

Printy 9 1-2 0-1 0-0 0 1 1 2

Totals 24-62 6-16 15-17 34 10 20 69

Halftime score — UNT 33, ISU 31. FG Pct. — UNT .400, ISU .387. 3-pt FG Pct. — UNT .440, ISU .375. FT Pct. — UNT .808, ISU .882. Turnovers — UNT 10, ISU 7. Steals — UNT 4 (Dennis 2), ISU 2 (Richard 2). Blocks — UNT 2 (Tramiel 2), ISU 3 (Crawford 2). (*) Team Rebounds — UNT 2, ISU 2. Att — 3,320.

Next — ISU (0-2) plays host to Murray State on Wedesday. North Texas (3-1) plays host to Jackson State on Wednesday.