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Gordon powers Indiana past Michigan

Jan 9, 2008 - 3:36 AM ANN ARBOR, Michigan (Ticker) -- The only thing that could stop Eric Gordon was himself.

Indiana's freshman sensation scored 23 points to lead the 11th-ranked Hoosiers to a 78-64 blowout of Michigan in a Big Ten Conference matchup Tuesday night.

D.J. White added 21 points to spark Indiana (13-1, 2-0 Big Ten) to its ninth consecutive victory.

"I'm extremely impressed by Indiana," Michigan coach John Beilein said. "We've played some good teams this year and I've played against some good teams in my coaching career and they're as good a team as we've played this year."

Gordon continued his torrid start to the season, becoming the first player in school history to begin his career with eight consecutive games of 20 or more points.

Entering the contest as the leading scorer in the conference with an average of 23.5 points per game, the only thing to slow Gordon was foul trouble.

The 6-4 shooting guard picked up his third foul with 8:19 to go in the first half. By then, he already had scored 11 points and staked Indiana to a 27-13 lead on a 3-pointer with 8:40 left in the opening 20 minutes.

"EG (Gordon) picks up his third foul and D.J. picks up his third foul," Hoosiers coach Kelvin Sampson said. "This team has to have those kids on the court, but that was the first half. Give Michigan credit, they went to a zone and started hitting some shots.

With Gordon on the bench, Michigan (4-11, 0-3) whittled the deficit to 37-31 at halftime on a three-quarter-court heave at the buzzer by Deshawn Sims.

"Coach told us a halftime we need to pick it up," Gordon said. "Sometimes you get a big lead and let up and that was what happened to us in the first half."

Another 3-pointer by Sims got the Wolverines within 39-34 just over one minute into the second half before Gordon went to work.

Gordon answered Sims' basket with a 3-pointer of his own and followed with a fall-away jumper, sparking a 16-3 run that he capped with back-to-back baskets for a 55-37 lead with 14:28 left to play.

"It took me out of the game a lot in the first half, but I didn't let it bother me in the second half," said Gordon of the foul trouble. "I could score at will any time I want, but I want to be in the flow of the game and not rush any shots."

That scoring flurry gave Gordon 20 points for the contest and effectively finished off Michigan, which never got the lead under 15 points until the final 1 1/2 minutes. He finished 9-of-16 from the floor, including 4-of-7 from the arc.

"The way we started the second half was going to be the key to the game," Sampson said. "We saw what Michigan did at Purdue, being down by 14 points at the half and tying the game. We had to be ready."

Freshman Jordan Crawford also was in double figures with 11 points for Indiana, which led for all but 18 seconds.

Freshman guard Manny Harris scored 19 points and Sims added 16 for the Wolverines, who lost their fifth consecutive game.

"Manny is good now and with DeShawn Sims, they have got a lot of good parts," Sampson said. "I see a lot of us last year in them."