Indiana University Athletics
IU Falls to Vandy
3/16/2005 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
March 16, 2005
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - The Indiana men's basketball team bowed out of the National Invitational Tournament with a first round 67-60 setback to the Vanderbilt Commodores in Assembly Hall, Wednesday night. The loss dropped the Hoosiers to 8-3 all-time in the NIT. Indiana ends the campaign with a 15-14 record. The Hoosiers struggled from the field, while the Commodores were hot. IU finished the game at 37.5 percent from the field and only 4-of-18 from behind the arc. Vandy by contrast shot 50 percent from the field, including an accuracy of 52.4 percent in the second half.
Junior All-American Bracey Wright led the Hoosiers with 17 points, including three driving dunks in the second half. Big Ten All-Freshman Robert Vaden finished out his rookie campaign with 13 points, while junior Marshall Strickland had 10. Freshman James Hardy matched his career-high with seven points in 16 minutes of action.
The Commodores built a pair of nine-point advantages in the first 20 minutes of play. The first advantage came with 4:06 remaining in the first half on a trey from the left wing by Vandy freshman Shan Foster. The bucket gave Vanderbilt a 28-19 lead.
A jumper from senior Corey Smith gave the Commodores their final nine-point advantage with just 2:04 showing on the clock. The Hoosiers countered with a pull-up jumper from Wright and a baseline jumper from White, to cut the Vanderbilt lead to 31-26 at the half.
Smith led the way for Vandy with 11 points in the opening half on 5-of-8 shooting from the field. Vanderbilt hit 4-of-9 from behind the arc and 48.1 percent from the field in the opening frame. The Hoosiers hit on just 37.5 percent from the field in the first half.
The Hoosiers would draw within three early in the second half. Vaden hit a jumper and added a pair of free throws to cut the Vanderbilt lead to 33-30 with 18:36 remaining. It was the closest Indiana had been since the 12:43 mark of the first half when the Commodores led 14-12.
Vanderbilt responded with seven straight points to push the lead to double-digits. Junior Mario Moore capped the run with a steal and lay up, pushing the lead to 40-30 with 16:32 remaining. The lead reached as many as 12 at 47-35 following a conventional 3-point play from Smith with 14:07 remaining.
The Indiana defense would hold the Commodores without a point for the next 4:30, but the offense could only muster five. IU got a steal and dunk from Wright to go along with a 3-pointer from the top of the key from Strickland to cut the deficit to seven at 47-40.
A dunk from senior Jason Holwerda pushed the Vandy lead back to double-digits at 53-42 with 7:22 remaining. The Hoosiers would not go away, cutting the Vanderbilt lead back to four at 57-53, following a plethora of offensive rebounds from the Hoosiers. IU garnered three offensive rebounds before Strickland hit a jumper in the lane with 1:55 remaining.
Vaden cut off a pass to the post by the Commodores with a diving stab to give the Hoosiers possession with 1:33 remaining. Strickland was fouled on a drive to the lane, but he could not hit on the front end of the one-and-one. Smith gathered the offensive rebound and was fouled on the play. He hit both free throws to ice the game.
Smith was the offensive force for the Commodores as he finished with a career-high 25 points on 8-of-14 from the field. Foster added 11 points for Vandy. The Hoosier defense held Vanderbilt's leading scorer Moore to just four points. Moore entered the game averaging 24.3 over his last three games and 13.4 for the season.
