Hoosiers upset No. 10 Irish

SOUTH BEND -- As IU's point guard, sophomore Tom Coverdale's job is running the Hoosiers' offense. Against Notre Dame Tuesday night, he was IU's offense.\nCoverdale topped his previous career high of 13 by halftime on the way to a 30-point performance in IU's 86-78 upset win against No. 10 Notre Dame. At times, the only way to stop Coverdale was to grab his jersey, as Notre Dame's Troy Murphy did late in the second half to prevent an easy basket.\n"I had no idea Tom Coverdale would score 30 points," interim head coach Mike Davis said. "Coverdale stepped his play up in the first half and hit a three pointer that gave us momentum going into halftime."\nJunior center Kirk Haston came off the bench to score 19 points and grab eight rebounds. Freshman forward Jared Jeffries scored 14 points and junior guard Kyle Hornsby added 11 points.\nCoverdale didn't quite know how to express how he felt about his career-best performance.\n"You can't describe the feeling right now," Coverdale said. "It's a great feeling knowing that this team can play this well. It just shows that we can play anybody if we're concentrating and playing the type of defense coach Davis wants us to play."\nDavis said adjustments have made the team better. "By putting Jared Jeffries back inside and establishing Coverdale as our point guard, I think we can only get better," Davis said. "I'm sleeping well, because I know we have a good basketball team."\nSophomore Jeffrey Newton grabbed eight rebounds and had three blocks while guarding pre-season All-American Murphy for part of the game. Murphy finished with 15 points on five-of-18 shooting, a season-low in points.\n"We knew he was going to score," Newton said. "We just wanted to make every shot of his a difficult one."\nIt appeared IU would be off to another slow start when they turned the ball over on three consecutive possessions early in the game, but instead they jumped to a 15-6 lead.\nThe Irish (4-1) responded by going on a 10-2 run cutting the lead to 17-16. The game's first tie came with 4:08 in the first half after two free throws by Notre Dame senior guard Martin Ingelsby. Coverdale put the Hoosiers up 37-34 with a shot from behind the arc as time expired in the first half.\nCoverdale finished the half with 16 points on seven-of-11 shooting. \n"I just wanted to come out and take what Notre Dame gave me," Coverdale said. "(Assistant Head) Coach (John) Treloar told me to drive the ball as much as possible on the man who was guarding me because he knew I could get around him, and that's what I did in the first half of the game."\nThe Hoosiers (4-3) made 53 percent of their shots in the half, while the Irish connected on 35 percent shooting. Notre Dame made two more three-pointers and five more free throws to keep the game close.\nFor the game, IU shot 53 percent to Notre Dame's 38 percent. \nThe Hoosiers extended their lead to 50-36 early in the second half by going on a 13-2 run, in which Coverdale scored five points and junior guard Kyle Hornsby scored seven. Notre Dame would not fold and went on a 12-6 run of its own.\nDown the stretch, IU responded to small runs by Notre Dame by executing its offense well and running the floor. Many of the 11,418 fans in attendance headed for the exits after Hornsby extended the lead to 83-68 with more than two minutes remaining. \nWhen Coverdale exited the game with 58 seconds remaining, many of the fans still in attendance stood and applauded his performance\n"We're a lot better basketball team than we showed at the beginning of the season," Davis said.