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[PointGuard]

Sam Houston State Bearkats (6-7, 1-1) @ #22 Indiana Hoosiers (12-3, 2-0)

Terry Morillo: We continued to roll. We held a small lead throughout the first half and were up 50-45 at the break. The Bearkats rallied in the early going of the 2nd half during which there were 7 lead changes. But we clamped down defensively for 5 minutes and took a 19 point lead with 9 minutes to go. From thereon we coasted to a 93-79 win. Sam Houston State hit 53% of their shots, but we knocked down 61% of ours. Justin Holmes—18 pts, 7 ast, 3 stl; Chris Broussard—18 pts, 2 ast, 3 stl; Johnny Lubeck—15 pts; Jason Collier—13 pts, 4 reb; Brian Nicholson—12 pts, 3 reb, 2 ast, 3 stl; Kirk Reeves—9 pts, 3 ast, 3 blk; Dwayne Serraville—8 pts, 10 ast, 3 stl. [13-3, 3-0, 1st place tie]

[PointGuard]

#22 Indiana Hoosiers (13-3, 3-0) @ George Washington Colonials (9-5, 0-3)

Terry Morillo: We didn’t play very well against a team that was at the bottom of the conference standings, but it was a road game and they’re never easy. While we led almost the entire game, we never could put the Colonials away. We shot well from inside but horribly from outside, hitting just 3 of 17 of our 3PA’s. And Justin Holmes had an off night scoring, hitting none of his six 3-point attempts...he finished with just 7 points but did have 6 rebounds, 5 assists and 2 steals. We ended up winning this game 71-60. Kirk Reeves—14 pts, 11 reb, 3 ast, 3 stl, 2 blk; Chris Broussard—14 pts, 2 ast, 2 stl; Brian Nicholson—12 pts, 8 reb, 5 ast, 4 stl; Dayne Serraville—12 pts, 2 ast. [14-3, 4-0, 1st place tie]

Announcement: Chris Broussard was named the Conference G Freshman Player of the Week for the 2nd consecutive week.

[PointGuard]

Tennessee Volunteers (9-6, 3-1) @ #21 Indiana Hoosiers (14-3, 4-0)

Ken Yamoto: We got the lead early and pretty much held onto a 6-10 point lead all the way until the final 4 minutes when we pulled away for an easy 78-59 victory. Again we shot poorly from beyond the arc (3 for 16) but hit well from elsewhere since we were successful on 51% of our FG’s. We also made just 11 turnovers while forcing the Volunteers to turn the ball over 23 times. Our entire starting 5 scored in double figures: Dwayne Serraville—16 pts, 6 ast, 3 stl; Justin Holmes—14 pts, 5 reb, 4 ast, 4 stl; Chris Broussard—14 pts, 3 ast, 2 stl; Kirk Reeves—12 pts, 3 reb, 3 ast, 3 stl; Brian Nicholson—11 pts, 11 reb, 2 ast, 2 stl. [15-3, 5-0, 1st place tie]

[PointGuard]

#21 Indiana Hoosiers (15-3, 5-0) @ Louisiana Tech Bulldogs (6-11, 1-4)

Mike McMillan: We were warning our guys every day since our last game not to overlook the Bulldogs…to disregard their record and realize that every road game was dangerous. 9 minutes into the game I was nervous that our warnings had been disregarded since there had been 7 lead changes and we were trailing. We kicked some butts during a time out and the guys responded by edging ahead and achieving a 39-32 halftime advantage. Then we caught fire in the 2nd half and rapidly built a 20 point lead. We continued to dominate all the way to the end and we won this one 88-61. We popped in 56% of our shots, but again shot poorly from 3-point distance (28%). We made up for that by being +9 on the boards. Dwayne Serraaville—26 pts, 3 reb, 4 ast; Kirk Reeves—13 pts, 3 reb; Jason Collier—9 pts. 3 ast, 2 stl; Brian Nicholson—8 pts, 5 reb; Johnny Lubeck—8 pts, 9 reb, 4 blk; Justin Holmes—7 pts, 6 ast, 2 stl; Jason Friend—7 pts. [16-3, 6-0, 1st place tie]

[PointGuard]

Ramon Montez

After the two wins this past week we moved up to #19 in the polls. We’re doing very well in Conference G play, but the conference is competitive with Richmond also unbeaten, New Mexico and Oregon State 1 game back, and 5 teams sporting 4-2 records. We need to keep playing well and can’t back off. All of our starters are now averaging in double figures, topped by Brian Nicholson’s 13.1 ppg.

BUT……….the injury bug has bitten us HARD. First it was George Zinn breaking his foot 6 weeks ago, but starting SF Chris Broussard strained an abdominal in our last game and then SF Johnny Lubeck and starting C Kirk Reeves crashed into each other in practice and both sustained injuries to their shoulders. Johnny’s is minor but Kirk has a badly bruised shoulder and will be very limited for 2-3 weeks.

AND GUESS WHAT: our next game is against the Richmond Spiders with whom we’re tied for the conference lead. It’s a home game, but we’re going to come limping into it and our bench is going to have to step up big time.

[PointGuard]

Richmond Spiders (13-5, 6-0, 1st place tie) @ #19 Indiana Hoosiers (16-3, 6-0, 1st place tie)

Terry Morillo: We needed to break the Spiders 9-game win streak. Chris Broussard recovered pretty well and started at SF. But we moved Brian Nicholson from PF to C and started Jason Collier at PF. Kirk Reeves was still not fully recovered from the bruised shoulder. Nicholson scored our first 6 points on free throws. We broke out on top and pulled further and further away throughout the first half. By halftime we led 43-21. We eased our way through the 2nd half, using a very deep bench, and played well enough to maintain a very solid lead. The final score was 78-59 in our favor. We simply outplayed Richmond. Chris Broussard—17 pts, 7 reb, 2 ast, 3 blk; Justin Holmes—10 pts, 3 ast; Brian Nicholson—9 pts, 8 reb, 3 ast; Dwayne Serraville—9 pts, 3 ast; Greg Dye—7 pts, 3 reb. [17-3, 7-0, 1st place]

#19 Indiana Hoosiers (17-3, 7-0, 1st place) @ Louisiana-Lafayette Ragin’ Cajuns (12-6, 5-2)

Ken Yamoto: The Ragin’ Cajuns took it to us for 30 minutes. After training throughout the first half, being down 37-27 at halftime, and unable to catch up for the first 10 minutes of the 2nd half, we made a nice run to overtake Louisiana-Lafayette and then explode in the final minutes for a 69-56 road win. Good offense and great defense in the 2nd half made up for a lackluster first half. Justin Holmes—16 pts, 5 reb, 5 ast; Dwayne Serraville—14 pts, 3 reb, 3 ast; Brian Nicholson—14 pts, 8 reb, 3 stl; Kirk Reeves—11 pts, 3 reb. [18-3, 8-0, 1st place]

Announcement: Beating two good teams this past week moved us from #19 to #13 in the polls.

Terry Morillo

We got the bad news that one of recruits, PG Kent Haunty, fell a bit below our minimum SAT requirement. He was a very solid 4-star recruit. But we have a number of 4-star recruits we’ve been contacting throughout the winter and will offer a scholarship to one of them.

Our other two 4-star recruits did very well on their SAT’s.

[PointGuard]

Oral Roberts Golden Eagles (11-9, 2-6, 12th place tie) @ #13 Indiana Hoosiers (18-3, 8-0, 1st place)

Ramon Montez: We quickly pulled away and led 49-31 at halftime. Our lead throughout most of the 2nd half was about 20 points. Oral Roberts cut into it a little while we were playing out bench, but we still won 88-72. Brian Nicholson—25 pts, 10 reb, 4 ast, 4 stl; Dwayne Serraville—24 pts, 5 ast; Justin Holmes—13 pts, 6 reb, 3 ast, 2 blk; Jason Collier—13 pts, 2 ast. [19-3, 9-0, 1st place]

#13 Indiana Hoosiers (19-3, 9-0, 1st place) @ Purdue Boilermakers (7-13, 1-8, 15th place tie)

Mike McMillan: This was a helluva game! There were 36 lead changes, 21 ties and our biggest lead was 8 points while Purdue’s biggest lead was 5 points. At halftime is was 31-30 in favor of Purdue and at the end of regulation it was 68-68 sending the game to OT. After the 5 minute OT, the game was tied 81-81 and we went to double OT. That was close also, but we finally edged past Purdue in the final 1-1/2 minutes to win 95-91. Justin Holmes—was in foul trouble much of the game, played just 22 minutes before fouling out after putting in 10 of his 11 FG attempts and 4 of his 5 threes, 25 pts, 4 ast; Kirk Reeves—hit 10 of 13 FG’s, 24 pts, 7 reb, 4 ast; Dwayne Serraville—15 pts, 4 reb, 2 ast, 2 stl; Brian Nicholson—14 pts, 13 reb, 2 ast. [20-3, 10-0, 1st place]

Announcements: Our exciting double OT win on the road shot us up into the Top 10 in the polls. Our NET rank is now 15th best in Division 1. And we had double award winners this past week: Brian Nicholson was named the Conference G Player of the Week and Justin Holmes was the Freshman Player of the Week for Conference G.

[PointGuard]

Milwaukee Panthers (15-6, 8-2, 2nd place tie) @ #10 Indiana Hoosiers (20-3, 10-0, 1st place)

Ken Yamoto: Four very early lead changes but we then took control with a devastating defensive display. We held the Panthers to just 17 first half points while scoring 37 points. Our defense continued to frustrate Milwaukee in the 2nd half and our lead grew to as much as 35 points midway through the half. We ended up with a 72-45 stomping of the Panthers. No player on Milwaukee scored more than 7 points and we outshot them 51% to 37% while forcing them to make 21 turnovers. Brian Nicholson—15 pts, 7 reb; Danny Serraville—11 pts, 3 reb, 5 ast; Kevin Reeves—10 pts, 6 reb, 2 ast, 2 stl; Johnny Lubeck—8 pts. [21-3, 11-0, 1st place]

Announcement: Two more injuries occurred in this game…SF Julius Waterman suffered a sprained wrist and Jason Collier has a sore knee.

[PointGuard]

#10 Indiana Hoosiers (21-3, 11-0, 1st place) @ New Mexico Lobos (16-7, 7-4, 4th place tie)

Ramon Montez: New Mexico was ahead at one point by 10 points and led almost the entire 1st half. We rallied late, though, to pull into a 38-38 halftime tie. We opened an 8 point lead 5 minutes into the 2nd half, but then the Lobos closed in and there were several lead changes. We led the final 5 minutes but by no more than 4 points. We escaped with a 70-68 win. Dreamstyle Arena is a tough place for a visiting team to play. The team stats were as close as the score. Reeves, Broussard, and Nicholson made 19 of 28 FG’s and combined to pull down 26 rebounds for us. Kirk Reeves—17 pts, 8 reb, 2 blk; Chris Broussard—15 pts, 5 reb, 2 ast; Brian Nicholson—13 pts, 13 reb; Justin Holmes—11 pts, 7 ast, 3 stl. [22-3, 12-0, 1st place]

[PointGuard]

Oregon State Beavers (14-9, 7-5, 4th place tie) @ #8 Indiana Hoosiers (22-3, 12-0, 1st place)

Mike McMillan: We came out swishing shots and ran away to a 49-29 lead at the break. We continued our dominance in the 2nd half and blew away the Beavers 91-59. We dropped in 60% of our FG’s and 64% of our 3’s, were +18 on the boards, and made 4 fewer turnovers than Oregon State. Dwayne Serraville—24 pts, 4 reb, 3 ast; Chris Broussard—17 pts, 3 reb, 3 ast, 2 stl, 2 blk; Justin Holmes—12 pts, 4 reb, 7 ast; Brian Nicholson—12 pts, 3 reb, 2 blk; Kevin Reeves—10 pts, 9 reb, 4 ast. [23-3, 13-0, 1st place]