Hoosiers dominate Wildcats

With 2:02 remaining in the first half of Wednesday night's men's basketball game, Northwestern coach Bill Carmody screamed. Then, he stomped his foot, picked up his cup and plodded to the end of the Wildcat bench. \nMeanwhile, interim head coach Mike Davis leaned forward in his chair and joked with official Tom Rucker. \nIU opened the game on a 14-2 run. Carmody strolled. Davis chuckled. IU stretched the lead to 25-7. Carmody dropped his hands to his knees. Davis smiled. IU stretched its lead to 19 points four minutes into the second half. Carmody plopped his foot on his knee and leaned back in his chair. Davis smirked.\nThe disappointed-versus-upbeat theme was common in IU's 78-54 win in front of 16,430 fans at Assembly Hall. With Iowa's 95-85 loss at Michigan, the Hoosiers (16-9, 7-4 Big Ten) now own sole possession of third place in the conference, behind Illinois and Michigan State -- the next two teams on IU's schedule.\n"We've seen this before," Carmody said. "Better teams in the league jump out on us and get us out of the game. We didn't have an answer for them. We didn't compete."\nNorthwestern (9-16, 1-11) managed 13 points in the first 13 minutes, while IU hit from inside and out to spark runs of 14-2 and 12-4, opening up a 21-point lead midway through the first half. \nJunior center Kirk Haston and sophomore forward Jeffrey Newton scored 18 of the Hoosiers' first 22 points. Haston nailed a pair of three-pointers and Newton spun and twisted his way to three lay-ups and a 10-foot jumper. \n"Newton played his best game of the season," Davis said. \nHaston finished with a game-high 19 and grabbed 13 rebounds, and Newton scored a career-high 17. The Hoosier frontcourt -- Haston, Newton and freshman forward Jared Jeffries -- exposed the Wildcats' soft inside defense, scoring 47 points. Northwestern sophomore forward Ben Johnson and junior center Tavares Hardy led the Wildcats with 13 each. \nIU forced Northwestern to settle for outside shots through much of the first half. The Wildcats finished the first half 3-of-10 from beyond the three-point arc and shot 32 percent. IU shot 50 percent in the first half and finished the game with 54 percent. \n"Our game plan was to get inside and attack the offense glass," Davis said. "Somebody told me Newton was sick. He needs to be sick every night, if he can play like that." \nNewton, who said he has been slightly sick the last two days, responded to Davis' statement with a grin.\n"I've been trying to play through it," Newton said. \nHe did, and IU mended it's illness -- second-half struggles. Those troubles that have plagued the Hoosiers this season didn't make an appearance Wednesday. IU lead by 16 at halftime and never let Northwestern close the gap to less than 16 from there on out. \n"When teams start to come back on us, we can't start to panic," sophomore guard Tom Coverdale said. "But, that's just part of not being in that situation before. We just have to settle down on offense."\nThe Coverdale-directed offense did just that, as a pack of Hoosiers found its way to the bucket. Coverdale scored seven of his 12 points after the break. Haston, Newton and Jeffries allowed IU to push its lead to 21 with 3:57 remaining as Davis began emptying the bench. \nThe Wildcats played most of the second half without sophomore guard Winston Blake, who turned an ankle late in the first half. Blake, the Wildcats' leading scorer at 12.3 points per game, went scoreless, missing all six of his field-goal attempts.\nDavis said he was uncertain about how his squad would handle Northwestern, which had lost 32 consecutive Big Ten games before upsetting Iowa Sunday. But Davis wasn't so gun-shy when discussing the possibility of the Hoosiers making a dash toward the Big Ten crown. \n"I think we can do it, and Saturday (against Illinois) will be a good test," Davis said. "If we continue to defend the way we have, we have a chance. This team is confident and on a roll"