Gordon drops 33, sets record in Hoosiers win

The IU men’s basketball team defeated Tennessee-Chattanooga 99-79 to score a win in its first game of the season. The victory, however, did not come without a scare.\nWith six minutes remaining in the second half, senior forward D.J. White attempted to block a shot when he tripped over a Mocs player and hit the floor hard. White stayed motionless for a few seconds before being helped up by IU trainer Tim Garl. Silenced by the fall, the crowd at Assembly Hall erupted in cheer once the Hoosiers’ senior was helped into the locker room.\nWhite, who scored 17 points and grabbed four rebounds, returned to the bench with five minutes remaining in the game, but saw no further action as the Hoosiers extended their home-court-winning streak to 18 games.\nCoach Kelvin Sampson said White seemed fine after the game, but he did not know the extent of White’s injury.\n“He just got stitches, I don’t know how many,” Sampson said. “He just bounced his head off the floor.”\nWhite’s fall was not the only thing that scared the Hoosier faithful, as IU trailed heading into halftime 50-46. Chattanooga’s surge was led by senior guard Kevin Bridgewaters, who scored 14 first-half points on 6-6 shooting from the field. \nIU didn’t help its own cause by committing 10 first-half turnovers and allowing the Mocs to connect on 56.8 percent of their shots before intermission.\nSampson said at halftime the team needed to focus on defensive intensity and committing fewer turnovers.\n“Coach told us to pick up our intensity, and that’s what we needed to do,” freshman guard Eric Gordon said. “You could just tell by the way we played in the second half that was good for us.”\nTo contain Bridgewaters in the second half, Sampson had a simple plan – switch Gordon to guard him.\nWhile Gordon led all scorers with 33 points, his defense played a big role in the Hoosiers’ second-half turnaround. Gordon shutout Bridgewaters in the second half as the Hoosiers outscored the Mocs by 24 points in the final 20 minutes of action.\n“I think they defended the ball screen a whole lot better to slow me down,” Bridgewaters said. “I think they doubled a couple of times. They defended the guy who was trying to get me the ball.”\nSampson said he was proud of the way his team responded to a sloppy first half, saying his team got better in “almost every phase.”\n“The story of this game is the second half,” Sampson said. “Hold them to 29 points and 33 percent, so defense was great. It was great to see us respond like that in the second half.”\nThe slow first half was not a huge surprise to Sampson, who said he knew Chattanooga would present a challenge to his squad coming into the game.\n“I thought tonight was a perfect game for this team,” he said. “I couldn’t have scripted it any better. That team is really good, we knew that coming in.”\nJunior guard/forward Jamarcus Ellis did a little bit of everything Monday night for the Hoosiers, tallying five points, nine rebounds, six assists, two steals and a block. His ball handling was also important, as Chattanooga threw several different defenses at IU, including some trap defense at different points in the game.\n“You can see the value in a kid like him,” Sampson said. “He can pass, he rebounds the ball really well for his size and he’s a winner. He’s pretty good a lot of different things.”\nIn the end, Sampson was proud that his team did not get down on itself at halftime and came back to win the game. \n“There are a lot of teams that could have lost that game,” Sampson said. “It’s just good to see our kids battle back in the second half.”