Hoosiers beat in-state rivals Indiana St. by 4

Indiana State almost did it a third time in a row.\nTrailing by three in the waning seconds, ISU's David Moss looked for the tying basket, but a Marshall Strickland steal off Moss' pass prevented ISU's tying opportunity while stopping the Sycamores two-game winning streak against the Hoosiers with a 56-52 IU victory.\nIn their season opener, IU improved to 1-0 while ISU evened at 1-1.\nIt didn't come easy for IU coach Mike Davis' squad, however.\nIU never led in the first half after going into the break tied at 26. ISU also out-rebounded the Hoosiers, 33-28 for the game.\nDavis said last year's 14-15 squad would've lost this type of close game after ISU's Tyson Schnitker's tying basket with just more than three minutes to play.\n"Once they tied the game up it would have been a situation where we all would've been looking at Bracey to score a basket," Davis said. "Tonight, defensively, we stayed in there."\nA bright spot for IU offensively and defensively was junior guard Bracey Wright. Wright finished with 20 points on eight of 13 shooting while expending energy on the defensive end, battling ISU's leading scorer Moss. Moss finished with 15 points\nWright, who struggled in two preseason exhibition games, said now that it's the regular season, it's time to start lighting up the scoreboard.\n"This is the regular season. Those preseason exhibition games don't mean nothing," Wright said. "Like everybody was saying, you only have 8 or 11 in the preseason, I'm like 'That don't mean nothing to me.' Because when the regular season comes, it's show time. That's when you play." \n"I told everybody after I only took like 7 shots in a couple of exhibition games that that's not going to happen in a regular season game. It's going up, and I'm going to be ready to play, and that's what you'll saw."\nStrickland finished with 13 points, including the game's last five. Freshman Robert Vaden started and chipped in 10 points with five rebounds while fellow freshman D.J. White was held to four points with only one rebound.\nWith IU holding its largest lead of nine with under 10 minutes to play, ISU started its methodical comeback by cutting the Hoosier lead to seven, then to four, and then to two before finally tying the game at 50 with Schnitker's bucket. \nA Pat Ewing Jr. free throw and a Strickland basket pushed the Hoosier lead to three, 53-50, before ISU's Moss cut it to one with a driving basket. \nWith ISU in a fouling situation, Strickland hit two free throws -- which set the stage for his steal of Moss' pass with three seconds to go.\nFollowing the steal, Strickland added a free throw after he was fouled. \nDavis said he felt proud about his team's poise as the Hoosiers prepare for Western Illinois at Assembly Hall Saturday night.\n"We lost eight close games like this last year," Davis said. "There wasn't a time I looked out on the court that I thought our guys gave in to it. They stayed with it for 40 minutes. I'm proud of it"