Hoosiers fall in heartland to Hawkeyes

IOWA CITY, Iowa -- It seemed like things were heading in the right direction for D.J. White on Saturday afternoon. \nJust 24 seconds into the Hoosiers' matchup against Iowa, White grabbed a pass with his back to the basket. He backed down his defender with a few dribbles, spun to his right and sank a high-arching jumper.\nUnfortunately for White and the Hoosiers, though, that was about the extent of the junior forward's production for the day.\nWhite scored just six points on four shot attempts from the field during the Hoosiers' 81-75 loss to Iowa on Saturday afternoon at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.\nIowa used a barrage of its big men to double team White, while also taking away open shot opportunities for the Hoosiers' wings, but IU coach Kelvin Sampson said after the game that White wasn't the only one who struggled with double teams.\n"They just doubled him and trapped him," Sampson said of White. "I just didn't think we were very aggressive in our double teams. It's not the first time we've been doubled this year. I thought we were on that double about like we were on the boards. Just kind of non-aggressive."\nBesides his struggles scoring, White also tallied four turnovers and fouled out of the contest. Iowa coach Steve Alford said after the game that he was very pleased with his team's effort Saturday, especially the job they did defensively and on the boards.\n"We just wanted to put a little more heat on him," Alford said of his team's defensive effort on White. "We wanted to make their post feeds a little tougher. We wanted to run some traps at him and keep him off balance."\nWhile the Iowa defense shut down the Hoosiers, the offense thrived as well. Hawkeyes guard Adam Haluska led all scorers with a game-high 33 points on 5-for-11 3-point shooting and 10-for-11 free-throw shooting. Iowa shot just 40.4 percent from the field for the game but outscored the Hoosiers on points in the paint and second-chance points.\nSenior guard Rod Wilmont provided the lone spark for the Hoosiers with 24 points, while senior guard Earl Calloway contributed 16.\nThe two teams went into halftime tied at 37, but it was the Hawkeyes who controlled most of the second half. The Hoosiers finally regained the lead at the 14-minute mark, but they went the next five minutes without a basket. IU kept it close in the final minutes, but Iowa's strong free-throw shooting down the stretch put the game out of reach. The two squads exchanged the lead 13 different times in the game and had five ties.\nThe win gave the Hawkeyes their 29th in their last 31 home games and helped them improve to 13-10 overall and 5-4 in the Big Ten. The loss dropped the Hoosiers to 16-6 overall and 6-3 in the Big Ten.