Indiana University Athletics
INDIANA DROPS LEAGUE OPENER AT IOWA
12/31/1998 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
INDIANA DROPS LEAGUE OPENER AT IOWA
IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) -- Kent McCausland and Ryan Luehrsmann got most of the points against Indiana but Guy Rucker got most of the rebounds, something Iowa coach Tom Davis said the Hawkeyes will need to contend for the Big Ten title.
McCausland led Iowa (No. 24 ESPN/USA Today, No. 21 AP) with 15 points and Luehrsmann had 11, but Rucker, who finished with a game-high seven rebounds, helped the Hawkeyes break open a tight game with his inspired play in the final 20 minutes to carry Iowa to a 67-52 victory over the Hoosiers (No. 10, No. 8).
The second half was a big change from the first period for Rucker, who had just one rebound and scored no points before halftime. He finished with four points.
"I thought he struggled in the first half," Davis said. "But I was impressed that he stuck with it. He was really dominating on the boards in the second half, and it will be a good step for this team to have someone do that."
Rucker said he felt loose in warm-ups and the feeling carried over into the game, underscored in the second half when he was pushed to the floor from behind and he started doing push-ups.
"I felt active in warm-ups and I tried to keep doing it through the game," he said. "I was just fully into it. I was ready to go."
Rucker and J.R. Koch, who had four blocked shots to go with his four points, helped the Hawkeyes win the rebounding battle by a 38-31 margin.
Koch and Jess Settles, eligible for a sixth season because of injuries and playing his first Big Ten game since March 9, 1996, each grabbed five rebounds.
"We always try to start out a game well and start out a second half well, and we did that, but we didn't add much to the game after that," Indiana Coach Bob Knight said. "It seemed like they were just a step ahead of us at every turn."
The Hoosiers also shot poorly, hitting 37 percent from the floor on 20-of-54 shooting.
Luke Recker, their leading scorer, is averaging 16 points a game, and A.J. Guyton, 15, but they combined to miss 16 of 21 field goals.
"I don't think we can be competitive with anything like that," Knight said. "We had some opportunities in the beginning, but we just didn't take advantage of what we had."
The Hawkeyes (10-1) won their eighth straight contest while defeating the Hoosiers for the fifth consecutive time.
Rob Turner scored 12 points and Recker 11 for Indiana (13-3), which came into the game riding a five-game winning streak.
The game was a defensive battle from the beginning, with the Hawkeyes hitting just 38 percent from the floor and Indiana only 34 percent in the first 20 minutes.
Iowa, shooting 45 percent from 3-point range to lead the league, hit 5-of-11 long-range shots, including three by McCausland, to open a 31-27 halftime lead.
Consecutive baskets by Turner and Kirk Haston knotted the game at 31 before Luehrsmann's basket started a 15-5 spurt, capped by Rucker's two free throws, to give the Hawkeyes a 46-36 lead with 12:49 remaining.
Cold shooting and turnovers -- Indiana committed 20 for the game -- continued
to plague the Hoosiers and Rucker kept dominating the boards to help the
Hawkeyes rip off another nine points for a 55-36 advantage, their largest
lead to that point, and the Hoosiers never recovered.
