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Indiana overcomes cold spell to hold off Minnesota

Jan 18, 2008 - 6:36 AM MINNEAPOLIS (Ticker) -- Indiana survived a long cold spell in the second half and some sloppy ball handling to hold off Minnesota.

D.J. White had 17 points and 10 rebounds and Lance Stemler made the go-ahead 3-pointer to lift No. 10 Indiana to its 11th straight win, a 65-60 triumph over Big Ten rival Minnesota on Thursday.

Freshman Jordan Crawford added 16 points for the Hoosiers, who committed 26 turnovers and went without a point for nearly eight minutes in the second half.

"I thought both teams really played hard," Indiana coach Kelvin Sampson said. "I think (Minnesota coach Tubby Smith) has done a tremendous job with this group - he has them playing the right way. Their pressure bothered us. This is not an easy place to play."

The stretch started at the 12:05 mark and ended with 4:08 remaining on a jumper by Crawford, which ended the Golden Gophers' 9-0 run and pulled the Hoosiers within 56-54.

Still trailing by two, Stemler drilled a 3-pointer from the top of the arc to give Indiana a 61-60 lead with 1:25 remaining.

After Indiana (15-1, 4-0 Big Ten) got two free throws from freshman Eric Gordon to boost the advantage to three, Lawrence McKenzie missed a shot from the arc with 11 seconds left. Stemler then made two more foul shots, securing the victory for the Hoosiers.

"Overall I thought the kids showed a lot of toughness but we did have some poor spots where we didn't play with the consistency we needed to play with," Smith said. "Obviously we did some things well, but we did some things poorly too."

The Big Ten's leading scorer, Gordon scored just 12 points for the Hoosiers, who have won 11 straight for the first time since the 1992-93 campaign. Gordon had seven turnovers for Indiana, but Smith thought that the Golden Gophers did not take advantage of the miscues enough.

"When you turn a team over 26 times and you only turn it over 11 times, we had our chances to pull away," Smith said. "We had a situation where we had control of the game, but the guy hits the 3 with a minute left and it takes the wind out of your sails."

Indiana shot 48 percent (22-of-46) from the field and outrebounded Minnesota, 38-23.

The Golden Gophers led early on before the Hoosiers jumped out in front.

Behind three 3-pointers from Crawford, Indiana went on a 17-0 run to turn a six-point deficit into a 38-27 advantage with 2:22 left in the first half.

Crawford had 14 points in the first half as the Hoosiers held a 40-32 lead at the break.

Minnesota went on a 9-3 spurt after intermission to get within 43-41.

Dan Coleman had 15 points and seven rebounds and Spencer Tollackson added 12 points for the Golden Gophers (12-4, 2-2), who fell to 8-1 at home this season.

"So far this year with the team, we've kind of taken over at the end of the game," Tollackson said. "I'm crushed right now. Just completely heartbroken. I really thought we were going to win.

"I thought they played better than us, but I thought we wanted it a little bit more, played a little bit harder."

The loss also denied Smith career win No. 400.