Recker wrecks Hoosiers

INDIANAPOLIS - For those IU fans who aren't fond of Luke Recker, this one wasn't easy to swallow. And it won't be for a long, long time.\nHe did it all - hit a three-pointer to tie the game, got a rebound and timeout to set up his Hoosier heartbreaking lay and drained a jumper as time expired.\nRecker took his lumps during two losses to his former team this season.\nSaturday, he closed the final chapter with the last laugh, a bang and a shot that hit nothing but net with nothing but zeros on the clock.\nRecker, the former IU standout, buried a 13-footer on the baseline, lifting ninth-seeded and defending Big Ten tournament champion Iowa to a 62-60 victory over fourth-seeded IU in the semifinal round of the Big Ten Tournament in Conseco Fieldhouse.\n"Luckily, I got (IU) the last time," said Recker, who sank a similar shot to beat top-seeded Wisconsin 58-56 Friday. "This feels pretty good."\nRecker led Iowa (19-14) with 17 points. Sophomore guard A.J. Moye, who charged up IU with 11 first-half points and a load of emotion, led IU with 14, Tom Coverdale scored 11 and Jared Jeffries dropped in 10.\nRecker tied the game at 60 with a deep three-pointer on the right wing over senior guard Dane Fife with 58 seconds left. IU (20-11) then worked the clock until Jeffries missed a jumper from the right baseline. Jeffries and junior Jeff Newton had at least three chances for tip-ins, but all rolled off the rim. After the final put-back try, Recker darted past Jeffries and grabbed the ball as both he and the ball fell out of bounds. Recker called a timeout and set up the final play.\n"If you look back, there were many instances where you could have turned the ball back out and go, but I felt like we had them scrambling and could get a quick put-back," Jeffries said. IU didn't, and Iowa milked the clock until about five seconds remained. Recker took a pass from Pierre Pierce and began his move with about two seconds remaining and the score tied at 60. Fife began the sequence guarding Recker, but in a planned switch, Jeffries moved in front of Recker.\nWith the 6-foot-10 Jeffries in front of him, Recker stuttered near the three-point line and dribbled to the bucket and tossed up a rainbow jumper over Jeffries. It left his hand with 0.2 seconds left and sunk through the next as time expired.\n"I think it came down to me making plays on Recker," said Fife of his former roommate. "The baseline shot is hit shot. It takes a special person to make that." IU coach Mike Davis questioned whether time expired before Recker shot the ball, but the officials confirmed the ball left Recker's hand before the clock hit all zeros.\nSeveral television media members discovered that the clock sputtered at 2.2 seconds and froze for about one-half second.\n"I knew the shot was good," Recker said. "I didn't have to look at the scorer's table. I saw the clock out of the corner of my eye. It was a euphoric feeling. I didn't know what to do." IU didn't either. The Hoosier looked drained and despondent at the post-game press conference after being handed their third loss in five games. It was Iowa that upset IU 63-61 in the Big Ten Tournament championship game last season. This time it was Recker, and while he admitted beating IU made the win that much more meaningful, the Hoosiers weren't so sure.\n"It doesn't matter who made it, we still lost," Coverdale said. "I wouldn't say that made it any worse." IU had an eight-point lead with 5:13 remaining on a pair of Coverdale free throws, but the Hoosiers scored only five more points the rest of the way. Recker ignited the charge with a three-pointer and kick-started a 15-5 Iowa run. IU's final points came on two more Coverdale free throws with 1:53 left.\nIowa's defense manhandled the Hoosier offense and forced IU to shoot 5 of 17 from the three-point line. IU's three starting guards - Coverdale, Fife and junior Kyle Hornsby - finished a combined 3 of 14 from the three-point arc.\nIU shot 39 percent from the field, marking the third time in three Big Ten Tournament games that Iowa has held its opponent to less than 40 percent.\n"We just wanted to stay home with the guards," Iowa coach Steve Alford said. "We just tried to keep them off-balance and do some different things to disrupt them. When Indiana starts bombing threes, it's hard to stop." Iowa never led by more than five - at 9-4 in the first half - but never allowed IU to run away. The Hoosiers led by as many as eight in the second half and six in the first half. Iowa trimmed that lead to one before a Moye put-back gave IU a 33-30 halftime edge.\nRecker, who scored 26 and 28 points in Iowa's first two Big Ten Tournament games, began his second-half binge with a pair of buckets that gave Iowa the lead with 10:36 remaining. Recker didn't score again until 4:51 was left, but he scored 10 of his 17 from that point on.\n"There is no defense for that," Davis said. "A guy drives hard baseline, you try to cut him off and all the sudden he pulls up on a dime and makes a big-time shot."\nThere isn't any defense for a last laugh, either. And now IU, an NCAA Tournament lock, waits for Sunday's Selection Show, when it will find out where it will play its first-round game. Until then, it has to deal with Recker's heroics.\n"As far as playing Indiana, yes, it's kind of a closure," Recker said. "I'll look back on this with fond memories. My emotions overcame me"