Indiana University Athletics
INDIANA BEATS DRAKE 102-46
12/28/1998 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
INDIANA BEATS DRAKE 102-46
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) -- Indiana credited its defense for coming close to a record-breaking victory.
The 10th-ranked Hoosiers posted their second-largest victory margin, routing Drake 102-46 Sunday in the first round of the Hoosier Classic.
"We obviously couldn't play any better than we did for most of the game," Indiana coach Bob Knight said. "Our defensive play helped us offensively. We got a lot of things from the defense that helped us score points.
Luke Recker scored 21 points for Indiana (12-2), which came within nine of the school record set in a 94-29 win over Notre Dame on Dec. 18, 1971. The victory margin was Indiana's largest in the 17-year history of the Classic, a tournament the Hoosiers have never lost.
Indiana also got 12 points from Kirk Haston and 11 each from Rob Turner, William Gladness and Lynn Washington.
"This team can guard somebody and they want to guard somebody. It's nice to see five guys out there want to guard somebody."
Indiana's speedy starting quarterback, Antwaan Randle El, played his second basketball game for the Hoosiers as a reserve point guard. He scored his only points after nabbing a steal with 2:22 left and going the length of the floor for a layup as the crowd roared .
Indiana, which plays Ball State in Monday's championship, made 60 percent of its shots to 30 percent for Drake. Ball State defeated Bucknell 63-59 to advance to the championship.
Matt Woodley scored 13 points and Aaron Deeter added 12 for the Bulldogs (5-4).
"Drake's a team that plays really hard," Recker said. "We picked our defense up and it really started to wear on them. It got some easy buckets for us."
Indiana led by just four with 9:05 left in the first half. But the Hoosiers closed out the half by outscoring the turnover-prone Bulldogs 27-4. Michael Lewis scored nine points and Dane Fife scored seven during that stretch.
Drake turned the ball over 16 times in the first half, leading to 18 points for Indiana. The Bulldogs finished with 34 turnovers.
Lynn Washington's layup with 7:03 left increased the lead to 40.
The previous high victory margin in the Classic was a 50-point win over Indiana State in 1991. Coming in, the Hoosiers had an average victory margin of 24.6 points in games in this tournament.
"We knew it was going to be a tough game but we knew we would learn from it," Drake coach Kurt Kanaski said. "They really forced us to rush a lot of things.
"We have played tough teams this year, but no one has beaten us
like IU."
© Indiana University Athletics 1998
