Hoosier hoops holds off Sycamores

The IU men's basketball team held off a late surge from Indiana State on Friday night, surviving a 23-3 second-half Sycamore run and winning 73-66.\nJunior Lance Stemler led IU with 18 points, going 6-for-11 from the field, including five 3-pointers. Two of those threes came in the closing moments of the second half -- one with 33 seconds left to extend the IU lead to five and seal the victory for the Hoosiers.\nIU cruised in the first half, opening an initial 11-5 lead and ending the half 36-23. In the second half, IU expanded the lead to 53-33.\nBut Indiana State gradually climbed back in the game, penetrating in the half court and capitalizing on IU's 18 turnovers with fast break points. With 5:10 left, the Sycamores closed the lead to 59-58.\nStemler hit the first of his late threes, though, and IU slowly re-opened the lead and held on for the victory.\n"The first 25 minutes of the game -- I don't know that we can play any better at this point in the season," IU coach Kelvin Sampson said. "But the last 13 minutes or so, I don't know that we can play any worse."\nSampson said he was glad to see tight games this early in the season to prevent the shock that comes with the first tight contest of a team's season.\n"Sometimes you get in your first close game in the middle of January and you don't know how you're going to react," he said. "Well, we're finding out with this group how to react in a close game, and we've got to get better in those areas."\nDespite their late struggles, the Hoosiers utilized a balanced attack Friday night; four other Hoosiers joined Stemler in double figures. Senior Earl Calloway had 13 points on 6-for-8 shooting and freshman Joey Shaw notched 11, seven of which came from the free-throw line. A.J. Ratliff scored a balanced 11 on 3-for-6 from the field and 3-for-5 from the stripe.\nD.J. White struggled throughout the night, never finding his rhythm in his 32 minutes. White had 12 points, but on 4-12 shooting, missing most of his shots from inside the post area.\n"I'm not worried about missed shots," Sampson said. "I'm worried about attitude and effort. D.J. could easily go 10-for-12 Sunday without me saying a word to him"