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Gordon, Indiana blow past Chicago State

Dec 30, 2007 - 6:20 AM BLOOMINGTON, Indiana (Ticker) -- The only thing that did not go Indiana's way on Saturday was Eric Gordon's shooting.

Gordon scored 22 points despite some shooting woes as the No. 14 Hoosiers rolled to a 97-59 victory over Chicago State on Saturday.

D.J. White added 21 points and 15 rebounds for Indiana (11-1), which made numerous trips to the foul line in capturing its seventh straight win.

One of the top freshmen in the country, Gordon did not have the deft shooting touch that he has displayed for much of the early part of the season, going 3-of-12 with just two 3-pointers.

The 6-4 guard has built up enough of a reputation to get the calls he needed when he drove the ball, converting all 14 of his free-throw attempts. Behind Gordon, the Hoosiers went 21-of-23 (91 percent) from the stripe.

"The story tonight is getting to the free-throw line with EJ (Gordon), getting the ball inside to D.J. (White)," Oklahoma coach Kelvin Sampson said.

After scoring the first 11 points of the game, Indiana held a healthy 35-9 advantage after White completed a three-point play with 8:15 remaining before the half.

"I just thought we were ready to play," Sampson said. "We had really good practices since we came back on Wednesday. I thought our defense was really, really good the first 20 minutes. I think we dominated every phase of the game and I felt we did a great job on their guards the first half."

The Hoosiers were ahead, 48-19, at the break and held a 76-37 advantage after a layup by DeAndre Thomas at the midway point of the second half.

Freshman Jordan Crawford scored 15 points and Armon Bassett 13 for Indiana, which shot 47 percent (34-of-72) and dominated play on the boards, 56-26.

"They overwhelmed us with their size," Chicago State coach Benjy Taylor said. "They outrebounded us by 30. Our inside guys are young and they weren't really ready for that, but their effort in terms of 40 minutes for what they were trying to accomplish, I thought was very good."

David Holston scored 25 points for Chicago State (4-12), which lost its fourth straight game and 10th in 12 games.

"He's a competitive kid," Taylor said of the junior guard. "They did a good job on him in the first half, but I knew that he wouldn't quit.

"David would rather score five points and win than score 25 and lose. That's just the kind of kid that he is, so this has been really hard on him."

The Hoosiers now have four days to get ready for their Big Ten opener at Iowa on Wednesday. Sampson is fairly confident that Indiana will better the 10-6 record in had in conference play last season.

"One thing I think we have established this year is we are a good rebounding team," Sampson said. "In the six games in the league that we lost we led in the second half of all those games. So it is just getting better."