By Mark Bennett
For 20 minutes Wednesday night, Terence Avery
thought he was seeing the Sycamores of old the giant-killer
wins, the stingy defense, the aggressive assaults on the basket.
Turns out, it was a mirage.
Valparaiso started the second half with a
13-2 run. Things went downhill from there for Indiana State.
The Sycamore basketball team (0-2) lost again, 71-54 to the visiting
Crusaders.
"In the first half, I felt a little glimpse
of last year -- getting out on teams and the excitement,"
Avery said. "And in the second half after they made some
shots, as a team we didn't know how to react. And I think we
got our heads down a little bit and got flat-footed, and [Valparaiso]
started to make more and more shots."
The Crusaders (1-2) hit 17 of 29 second-half
shots (59 percent), to be exact. Shooting was the main topic
of Valparaiso's halftime discussions, said senior Lubos Barton.
They'd made only 39 percent of their shots in the first half,
and trailed ISU 32-29 at intermission. The Crusaders intended
knew they had to improve.
"Of course, we didn't think we were going
to shoot like this," said Barton, who led all scorers with
16 points.
Only two other Valparaiso players scored in
double figures -- guard Milo Stovall with 12 points and forward
Joaquim Gomes with 11. But the Crusader reserves combined for
26 points and 10 rebounds, while the Sycamore bench managed only
seven points and five rebounds. Four ISU starters scored in double
figures, led by senior forward Djibril Kante, who had 13 points
and 13 rebounds. Seniors Kelyn Block and Avery added 10 points
each, as did sophomore guard Marcus Howard.
Once Barton and Gomes started dropping in
jumpers at the outset of the second half, Kante and Avery retaliated
with baskets in the post, keeping the Sycamores as close as 51-43
with 11 minutes and 55 seconds left. But their hopes vanished
amid another Valparaiso run of 10 unanswered points for a 61-43
edge. ISU went more than five minutes without scoring, before
Howard hit a 3-pointer to snap the tailspin.
The youth of the 2001-02 Sycamores, with four
first-year players in uniform, should not be the cause of such
droughts, ISU Coach Royce Waltman insisted.
"We start three seniors. And I think
Djibril and Kelyn are playing their ass off, and Terence is coming
along," Waltman said. "But we've got to have some younger
guys understand that they're on full scholarship."
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| Tribune-Star/Joseph
C. Garza |
| Rough night of roundball: Indiana
State's Matt Berry (left) loses control of the ball after being
blocked by Valpo's Joaquim Gomes during Wednesday night's game
at Hulman Center. |
Avery said the team has potential, if everyone
contributes.
"As a team, we've got to keep getting
better. And us seniors -- Djibril, Kelyn and myself -- we have
to lead these guys," Avery said. "And we also have
to have younger guys step up. It works both ways."
Both teams came into the game struggling.
The Crusaders opened their season in impressive fashion, losing
just 73-69 to Purdue, but then lost 74-72 at Belmont on Monday
night. Meanwhile, the Sycamores lost their first game at Illinois-Chicago
on Sunday by a virtually identical score -- 70-54.
At Chicago, ISU failed to keep the Flames'
guards from grabbing offensive rebounds and quickly hitting their
second shots. On Wednesday, the Sycamores rebounded evenly with
the tall Valparaiso lineup. But they made just 36 percent of
their shots, including just 30 percent in the second half.
"We know that they've got some really
superb outside shooters. We wanted to close out and make those
looks very difficult," said Valparaiso Coach Homer Drew
said. "And of course, they've got two very strong people
inside, and I thought [centers] Raitis [Grafs] and Antti [Nikkila]
did a pretty good job of battling those two guys."
While Waltman praised the effort by Kante
and the seniors, he was hardly satisfied with the evening's outcome.
The Sycamores face a 3:05 p.m. game Sunday at Butler, a team
that just won the Top of the World Classic at Alaska over the
weekend. Another performance similar to Wednesday's second-half
swoon could be catastrophic.
"I don't mean to sound like I'm bad-mouthing
our own guys, because we have good guys, but at this point we're
totally inept as a basketball team," Waltman said.
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