By Mark Bennett
As Saturday afternoon's basketball game in
Hulman Center teetered between disaster and success, the Kelyn
Block of old re-emerged.
As a result, he and his Indiana State Sycamore
teammates finally won this season, beating the IUPUI Jaguars
66-56.
With less than a minute left before halftime,
Block and the Sycamores (1-4) still hadn't taken a lead on unheralded
IUPUI and trailed 30-27. Block, the rugged guard who broke three
teeth and still led ISU to an overtime NCAA Tournament victory
over 13th-ranked Oklahoma last March, had already scored seven
points against the Jaguars. But his early baseline layup, 3-pointer
and two free throws failed to wound the visitors.
Then Block did some real damage.
With 46 seconds left in the first half, he
turned a hard-driving layup into a three-point play. Tie score
30-30. And when Jaguar guard Brian Buchanan missed a 3-pointer,
Block clutched the rebound, setting ISU up for one final shot.
On a zig-zagging trip down the lane, the senior from Kansas sank
a left-handed layup just before the buzzer.
It was part of an 18-2 Sycamore run that stretched
from the first half and into the second. They hadn't amassed
such a scoring streak all year. IUPUI (3-2) never recovered.
Block finished the game with 16 points. He'd entered the day
averaging just 8.8 points a game, after posting a 14.6 average
a year ago. The 6-foot-2, 200-pound Kansas wasn't the only struggling
Sycamore through an 0-4 start, just the most prominent.
"Kelyn and I had kind of been struggling
in our shooting percentage," said fellow senior Djibril
Kante. "And Kelyn, he got that swagger back. You could see
it shooting layups. And it was a good feeling for me to see
him getting back on it."
Block's opening came when Sycamore Coach Royce
Waltman switched to a four-guard lineup late in the first half.
IUPUI briefly pulled out of its zone defense, and Block found
a path.
"They ended up going to a man-to-man,
and it just kind of ended up with me having the ball," Block
said.
"Some guys hit some big shots for them,"
IUPUI Coach Ron Hunter said. "We knew that was going to
come."
By game's end, Block had hit 5 of 12 field
goals, and the team made 40 percent of its shots -- ISU's most
accurate game since the season opener. Unlike that loss at Illinois-Chicago,
though, the Sycamores also dominated the boards against IUPUI,
43-31. Sophomore Matt Berry grabbed a season-high 13, and Kante
snatched nine.
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| Tribune-Star/Joseph
C. Garza |
| Rough scramble: Indiana State's
Matt Berry (bottom) tries to keep control of the ball as IUPUI's
Matt Crenshaw reaches over him during Saturday's game at Hulman
Center. |
Block found inspiration in the play of Berry
and Kante.
"You play with guys like Matt Berry,
who do the little things. Him and Djibril go out and dive for
loose balls. With that type of thing, you can't help but go out
and play hard like those guys," Block said.
As for himself, Block hesitated calling his
effort a breakout game.
"I had a few conversations with my dad
about being aggressive," Block said. "And I just wanted
to come out and be aggressive."
Block's plays gave Waltman hope after the
rocky start, ISU's worst since 1993-94.
"He made several of those today. You
never know if it's because of their type of defense or what the
factors are, but it certainly was encouraging," Waltman
said.
The Sycamores also got 12 points from junior
guard Matt Broermann in a starting role, and 11 from ISU's third
starting guard Marcus Howard. Led by that backcourt, ISU also
hit 8 of 22 3-pointers and 16 of 19 free throws.
"Their perimeter players were pretty
good today," Hunter said of the Sycamores. "They made
plays for them, and that was the difference. They hadn't made
plays all year."
By contrast, IUPUI got the bulk of its scoring
from forward Charles Price, who led the Jaguars with 18 points
and seven rebounds. Waltman praised the defensive efforts of
Howard and Kante, as well as the improved rebounding and shooting.
Still, with another non-conference home game
against Murray State looming Monday at 7:05 p.m., Waltman wanted
to keep Saturday's performance in perspective. Although one of
IUPUI's victories last season was a 72-70 shocker over the Sycamores,
the Jaguars are team coming off an 11-18 year.
"As I told the kids, beating IUPUI by
10 here at home is not going to make that part in the back of
the media guide about the greatest games in Hulman Center,"
Waltman said. "But we just needed to win."
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