Feeling blue

SACRAMENTO, Calif. – \nThe IU players didn’t have to say a word after their game Saturday night. Their faces said it all.\nSenior guard Rod Wilmont slumped in a chair, tears welling up in his eyes. Junior forward Lance Stemler paced along the back of the locker room, his eyes swollen and red from crying. And not a single word was spoken among the players.\nThe message, though, was clear: The Hoosiers’ season was over.\nFor the second consecutive year, IU fell in the second round of the NCAA tournament, this time a 54-49 loss to the No. 2 seed UCLA Bruins at Arco Arena in Sacramento, Calif. The defeat dropped the Hoosiers \nfrom tournament play and put an end to the college basketball careers of senior guards Earl Calloway, Errek Suhr and Wilmont.\n“Just knowing it was my last game in an Indiana uniform, it’s hard,” Wilmont said. “One thing to take (away) for my team, though, is how we got together and fought back in the game. If we just would have done the little things, we would have had a chance to win. But this was my last game.”\nAside from a brief one-point IU lead in the first half, UCLA led for most of the contest. The Bruins took a 20-13 halftime lead – the 13 points marked the lowest point total in a half by any team in the NCAA tournament since the introduction of the shot clock – and held the Hoosiers to just a 17.3 shooting percentage in the first half. The Bruins then extended their lead to 14 following a quick 7-0 run to start the second half.\nBut the Hoosiers didn’t quit.\nThey responded with a 9-0 run of their own, cutting the Bruins’ lead to seven. UCLA clung to its lead for the next several minutes and appeared to have the game under control. The Hoosiers trailed by as many as nine in the final minutes of the game, but again, they didn’t quit.\n“Even with all that adversity, we put ourselves in a position to win the game,” IU coach Kelvin Sampson said after the game.\nIU used an 8-1 run with 1:44 remaining to cut the UCLA lead to two behind five points from Wilmont and a 3-pointer from Stemler. Then, after a pair of free throws from UCLA guard Arron Afflalo, the Hoosiers responded with two free throws from Stemler and a layup from Calloway to nod up the score at 49.\nWith 36.6 seconds left, Afflalo knocked down another pair of free throws to put UCLA out in front by two. But on the ensuing inbound pass, Stemler threw the ball into the hands of UCLA guard Darren Collison, effectively putting the game out of reach for IU.\n“It meant a lot (to hit shots down the stretch), especially the way I had been shooting,” Stemler said. “To hit those shots and help out coming back on this team, it was a great feeling ... until that turnover, when my heart just dropped.”\nStemler scored 10 points in the contest on 2-of-3 3-point shooting and was one of three Hoosiers to score in double figures; Calloway and junior forward D.J. White tallied 12 points each. White also grabbed 14 rebounds in the contest and added four blocks.\nThe loss put the finishing touches on a 21-11 season for the Hoosiers and culminated Sampson’s first season in Bloomington. Despite the loss, the three graduating IU seniors remained positive after the game and each expressed optimism toward IU’s future.\n“The program’s back on the right track,” Wilmont said. “I’m just happy to be a part of (Sampson’s) first season.”