Haston scores career-high 29

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. -- Although the Hoosiers are notorious for struggling on the road, junior center Kirk Haston found a sweet spot 550 miles east of Bloomington.\nLast February, he scored what was then a career-high 28 points against Penn State. Saturday, Haston was playing with four fouls and managed to score a career-high 29 points in IU's 85-78 overtime win against Penn State (13-7, 3-6 Big Ten) before a crowd of 15,232 at the Bryce Jordan Center. It was the first time the Hoosiers won back-to-back games on the road in the conference since the 1995-96 season.\n Of Haston's 29 points, there are three he won't forget.\n The Hoosiers squandered a 20-point first- half lead and found themselves down 65-62 with less than 30 seconds in regulation. Haston caught a pass from sophomore guard Kyle Hornsby on the left wing and nailed a three-pointer, sending the game into overtime.\nThe referees had to review the replay because he was close to the line. And the scoreboard still read 65-64.\nPenn State coach Jerry Dunn said he didn't want to draw a foul on Haston because he didn't want to give IU three free shots.\n"You have to make people make tough shots, and he made a tough shot," Dunn said. "I don't think there's anything wrong with that. If you haven't been a coach, it's easy to second-guess. But most coaches I know around the country would have played it the same way."\nHaston said that his opponents underestimated him from behind the arc and that he was playing with confidence. But the key to their win, he said, was composure, something IU lacked against Iowa and Minnesota when it forfeited substantial leads and eventually lost. IU gave up a 13-point lead two weeks ago at Iowa. Haston said it taught the team a lesson.\n"If we hadn't have gone through the Iowa game, we probably wouldn't have been able to compose ourselves as well as we did," Haston said. "If we're getting big wins down the stretch because of it, then it was worth it."\nThe Hoosiers (14-5, 5-4 Big Ten) led by as much as 20 in the first half and went to the locker room with a 40-22 lead. IU held Penn State to 20 percent from the field on 6-of-29 shooting. PSU senior guard Joe Crispin, the team's leading scorer with an average of 21.1 points per game, was held to three points in the first half. By that point, the fans in the Bryce Jordan Center were booing their own team.\nThat was the first half.\nThree of IU's starters were in foul trouble mid-way through the second half. Haston was on the bench with four fouls and the Hoosiers were clinging to a six-point lead. \nWhile Haston watched, Penn State went on a 15-0 run, taking the lead at 62-55 with less than five minutes in regulation. Haston came back in the game at the 6:24 mark. He ended the Hoosiers scoring drought around the three-minute mark with a three-pointer and then hit a jumper to bring IU within three.\n"I don't know what I did on two or three of those fouls, but I backed off a little bit and had to pick and choose when to be aggressive," Haston said. "Penn State at home is very tough and when you have guys that can shoot like (senior guard Titus) Ivory and Crispin, they're going to make runs.\n"We had some tough foul calls against us and it hurt (Jared) Jeffries' aggressiveness and my aggressiveness and put me on the bench. It's just one of those things you have to go through in the Big Ten."\nPenn State cut the lead to 12 in the first three minutes of the second half. With Crispin in a scoring drought, Dunn looked to senior forward Gyasi Cline-Heard and Ivory. The two combined to score 72 percent of Penn State's offense in the second half, scoring 31 of the Nittany Lions 43 second-half points.\nIvory led the team with 26 points and Cline-Heard finished with 19 points and 11 rebounds.\nIt wasn't until nine minutes into the second half that Crispin became a threat on offense. He sank 3-of-12 from beyond the arc, shot a perfect 9-of-9 from the free throw line and finished with 23 points.\nDavis said the Hoosiers lacked toughness on defense in the second half and took too many outside shots.\n"We took a couple of outside shots, 8 to10 feet out, when (Penn State) is not very good post-defense-wise," Davis said. "I wanted to go inside, and that was our game plan from the start. In the second half they doubled us and we weren't strong enough and tough enough to pass the ball back out.\n"We stood around again like we did at Iowa. They made baskets and we fouled like little girls instead of playing real tough. We have to get tougher. Loose balls, rebounds, passes, drives to the basket--we have to be tougher"