Hoosiers fall to Wildcats for first time in 15 years

EVANSTON, Ill. -- The Hoosiers didn't even win the tip.\nNor did the IU men's basketball team get more rebounds or more steals. All it can boast is more turnovers and a fourth consecutive loss.\nRoad games have not been kind to the Hoosiers (14-7, 4-4 Big Ten).\nFor the first time since Jan. 11, 1988, Northwestern beat IU, 74-61. It's been almost a year since the Wildcats have won a game in the conference, the last time being against Purdue last February. But Northwestern (9-10, 1-7) can no longer boast being tied for last place in the Big Ten now it has one conference win under its belt.\n"Northwestern did a good job of running their offense on us, and they scored easy baskets," IU assistant coach John Treloar said. "Defensively, you just have to learn from it. In the first game we played them, I thought we did a good job. Tonight they made a lot of easy baskets."\nIf the second half was going to include any intensity at all, the Hoosiers didn't show it. IU picked up where it left off in the first half by sloppily inbounding the ball, and let Northwestern drive to the basket. Just like that, the Wildcats had an eight-point lead that less than 30 seconds later turned into a 10-point lead. \nThe Hoosiers pulled back to within six points less than two minutes into the half, but at 13:42, Northwestern's senior Jason Burke made a free throw, giving him his only point of the game and giving the Wildcats a double-digit lead they didn't relinquish.\n"We didn't play well at all and haven't for a while," said senior guard Tom Coverdale. "We need to figure things out if we want to make the tournament. I really have no answers right now."\nThe lost tip was an early warning sign of what the Hoosiers had in store for the first half of the game. Northwestern was called for traveling on the first possession of the game and instead of capitalizing on the turnover, IU went right back down the court and did the exact same thing.\nOn the next possession, Northwestern gave the Hoosiers another chance to get on the board first after the Wildcats freshman guard T.J. Parker air-balled on a three-point jump shot. \nBut instead of taking over the tempo of the game, the Hoosiers missed their next four attempts at the basket, which included two Bracey Wright three-point shot misses. The freshman guard was 2-for-7 in the first half from the field.\n"We're terrible right now," senior guard Kyle Hornsby said. "It looks like chaos out there. We're not moving as a unit right now. They back-cut us; they got lay-ups all night long. They dominated us."\nWright's basket sent IU on an 8-2 scoring run that left the teams tied with just over 10 minutes to play in the first half. That tie would become a distant memory to the Hoosiers, whose lackadaisical defense allowed the Wildcats offense to score eight points to IU's one -- a free throw from junior guard A.J. Moye.\nIt wasn't about to get prettier.\nThat run gave the Wildcats a nine-point lead with 7:55 in the first. The Hoosiers, however, heated up for just over a minute to make two consecutive jump shots to pull within four, but Northwestern quickly snuffed that spark by ending the half by scoring eight and leading by as much as 10 to end the half with a 30-24 lead. \n"We've got to put it behind us," Treloar said. "They have the next two games at home. Michigan State is a very tough basketball team, so it will be a challenge. But hopefully they respond"