Indiana University Athletics
No. 17 Indiana Cruises Past Eastern Michigan, 79-63
12/3/2005 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Dec. 3, 2005
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. (AP) - Robert Vaden scored 18 points and freshman Ben Allen added a career-high 15 as No. 17 Indiana beat Eastern Michigan 79-63 on Saturday night.
The victory was coach Mike Davis' 100th in six seasons at Indiana (4-1), making him the second-fastest to the 100-win mark in school history. Only Bob Knight achieved the feat faster, doing it in five seasons.
Eastern Michigan (1-3) was led by John Bowler, who had a career-high 28 points and nine rebounds, but he had little help. Nick Freer finished with nine points and was the Eagles' second-highest scorer.
Indiana did not play with the same passion it had against No. 1 Duke on Tuesday. Rather, the Hoosiers looked sluggish early, and that forced them to fight off the pesky Eagles.
An 8-0 run midway through the second half finally gave Indiana control with a 60-47 lead.
But Eastern Michigan challenged Indiana much of the game.
The Hoosiers broke to a 16-8 lead before allowing Eastern Michigan to close to 25-24 with 7:03 left in the half after Danny McElhinny hit a 3.
Then, Indiana started mixing it up. The Hoosiers went inside to Allen, who completed a three-point play, and Robert Vaden and Allen connected on back-to-back 3s to make it 34-27. The Eagles closed again to 36-32 in the final minute of the half, but Errek Suhr's four-point play in the closing seconds gave Indiana a 40-32 halftime lead.
It appeared Indiana might pull away early in the second half when Roderick Wilmont hit two straight 3s to make it 50-36. But Eastern Michigan countered with an 11-2 run to make it 52-47.
That's when the Hoosiers put the game away by going on an 8-0 run. The closest the Eagles go the rest of the way was nine.
Indiana shot 55.6 percent from the field and shot 9-for-13 from 3-point range.
