Down to the wire win in 'Dome'

INDIANAPOLIS - It appeared as if the IU men's basketball team had the game under control. After scary moments of lost leads, waning offensive moments and blown game plans, the Hoosiers seemed to be in the clear against Purdue. \nBut the theme of Saturday's "Duel in the Dome" was fighting, and the Boilermakers intended to do that to the final buzzer.\nLuck was on IU's side, though, and the Hoosiers avoided an upset by beating the Boilermakers 66-63 at the RCA Dome.\n"We knew they weren't going to give up," freshman guard Bracey Wright said. "They weren't going to quit. This is a big rivalry game for them, and would have been a big win for them, so we just had to stay on our A-game and slide them off every time."\nBut Purdue (4-2) kept pressuring the undefeated Hoosiers (8-0).\nThe Hoosiers had a five-point lead with 10 seconds left in the game when freshman guard Marshall Strickland took the ball down the court, and attempted to end the game with a little flash by alley-ooping the ball to Wright.\nThe ball landed out-of-bounds, giving the Boilers a slim chance. But that chance widened when Purdue's freshman guard David Teague drained a three-point shot with four seconds left, making the score 65-63.\n"It was just a freshman mistake," assistant coach John Treloar said of Strickland's late-game turnover. "It was a time when he should have run the clock down, but it won't happen again."\nFollowing Teague's three-point basket, Purdue immediately called a timeout. When play resumed, the Boilermakers fouled Wright, giving him a chance to give the Hoosiers a comfortable four-point lead.\nBut in an uncharacteristic fashion, Wright's first free throw bounced around the rim, and then out. Looking at the Hoosier bench and shaking his head, Wright, who finished with 13 points, stepped back to the line, and made his second shot.\nWith one second left on the clock, Purdue had one last shot at a tie. But on the in-bound toss to half court, senior forward Jeff Newton snatched the ball out of the air, securing the win for the Hoosiers.\n"Yeah man, you know I like that feeling," Newton said smiling after the game about having the ball. \nNewton's steal was the grande finale for the forward. After a disappointing first half in which Newton had a mere two rebounds and zero points, he regrouped in the second. Using the lack of Purdue pressure, which focused on the IU backcourt, Newton had all of his 16 points in the last 14 minutes of the game.\nComplimented by going 10-for-12 from the free throw line, Newton also grabbed 10 additional rebounds in the second half, making the Purdue game the fifth consecutive double-double for him. The Hoosiers' other big man, junior center George Leach, also had a double-double with 11 points and 14 rebounds in 24 minutes of play.\n"I just wasn't taking advantage of how they were pressuring me in the first half," Newton said. "In the second half, they were pressuring me the same way, so I just went around them and went to the basket."\nDespite bouncing back in the second, IU experienced a weak first half, letting Purdue have the upper-hand in the beginning. After jumping out to a quick lead, the Hoosiers let the Boilermakers go on a 10-0 scoring run which gave them a lead that they didn't relinquish in the first half.\nThe game, viewed live by over 32,000 fans split evenly between Purdue and IU, was an aggressive battle between the two teams. The Hoosiers and Boilermakers combined for 43 total fouls, including a flagrant foul by senior guard Tom Coverdale, and the fouling out by Purdue's junior forward Chris Booker.\n"The whole game, it was just a fight," junior guard/forward A.J. Moye said. "We were prepared, but they really brought it. In the past couple years, we'd beat them and they'd lay down, but they brought it tonight"