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No. 1 Hoosiers leave no doubt

Indiana guard Victor Oladipo (left) grabs a loose ball from Ohio State guard Lenzelle Smith during the second half of Sunday’s game in Columbus, Ohio. Oladipo scored a career-high 26 points as Indiana defeated Ohio State 81-68.
Indiana guard Victor Oladipo (left) grabs a loose ball from Ohio State guard Lenzelle Smith during the second half of Sunday’s game in Columbus, Ohio. Oladipo scored a career-high 26 points as Indiana defeated Ohio State 81-68.

— After a stunning loss, the Indiana Hoosiers were on a mission to reaffirm just how good they were.

There was no questioning their ability Sunday.

Victor Oladipo scored a career-high 26 points, Cody Zeller added 24 and Christian Watford had 20 to lead No. 1 Indiana back from a loss to a huge road victory in beating No. 10 Ohio State 81-68 on Sunday.

“It was putting teams away, playing to win and not just playing for the time to run out,” Zeller said of the lessons learned from an upset loss at Illinois on Thursday. “So, we made that adjustment pretty well.”

Boy, did they. The Hoosiers (21-3, 9-3 Big Ten) dominated the second half while making some history and staying in the thick of the Big Ten race.

“We knew we let one get away from us,” Watford said. “At that point you just have to move on to the next one.”

The Hoosiers were coming off a collapse that might have caused the undoing of many teams. The Illini went on a 13-2 run to close the game, with Indiana turning the ball over late and then allowing an uncontested layup at the buzzer of a 74-72 shocker.

Less than three days later, they more than rebounded with a signature win in hostile territory.

The victory was Indiana’s first against a Top-10 conference opponent in more than 20 years - since a win in 1993 at Iowa. It was also the Hoosiers’ first win against any team in the top 10 on the road since beating Notre Dame in 2000.

“From the very beginning after we lost the other night, the biggest thing for our team was we were not going to spend a lot of our time worrying about bouncing back,” coach Tom Crean said. “I’m proud of the way these guys responded from a very tough loss.”

Indiana, now 3-0 against Top-10 teams this year, stayed in lock step with the leaders in the Big Ten. The Hoosiers are now tied with Michigan State (9-2) in the Big Ten standings. Michigan and Wisconsin are next at 8-3, followed by Ohio State at 7-4.

The Hoosiers shot 53 percent from the floor, the highest by any Ohio State opponent this season. They did it by getting the ball to Zeller down low, or hitting open jumpers when they got them. They seldom settled for a quick shot, instead patiently waiting until they could find a teammate who had a better look.

The Hoosiers - mostly their triumvirate of Oladipo, Zeller and Watford - always seemed to come up with a big play when most needed.

“Today we got a lot of really good basketball from Victor Oladipo, Cody Zeller and Christian Watford,” Crean said. “[They] played as well as a triangle - three guys - that you could get. And it was on both ends of the floor.”

Ohio State trailed 43-39 after Deshaun Thomas, an Indiana native and the Big Ten scoring leader who finished with 26 points, hit all three attempts after he was fouled behind the arc by Yogi Ferrell, the Hoosiers’ freshman point guard, who went to the bench with his third foul.

But Oladipo spun and hit a 12-footer in the lane and then tossed in a three-pointer from the right wing to push the lead to nine points.

Each time the Buckeyes would come up with a basket or defensive stop, Indiana would counter. Watford’s three with 9:24 left made it 62-46 and completely deflated a capacity crowd of 18,809.

After Ohio State’s LaQuinton Ross, who had 11 points, got a bucket in traffic, Watford flipped in another three for a 67-54 lead.

Aaron Craft added 16 points for Ohio State (17-6, 7-4).

NO. 4 DUKE 62, BOSTON COLLEGE 61

BOSTON - Mason Plumlee had 19 points and 10 rebounds, hitting the game winning free throw with 26 seconds left to help No. 4 Duke rally from early and late deficits to beat Boston College.

Seth Curry added 18 points for the Blue Devils (21-2, 8-2 Atlantic Coast Conference), who watched the three teams above them in the Associated Press Top 25 lose to unranked opponents this week - and then nearly joined them.

Olivier Hanlan scored 20 points for Boston College (10-13, 2-8).

CALIFORNIA 77, NO. 7 ARIZONA 69

TUCSON, Ariz. - Allen Crabbe scored 19 of his 31 points in the second half, Justin Cobbs hit a big shot in the closing seconds and California held its composure down the stretch to beat Arizona.

The victory came after Cal (14-9, 6-5 Pac-12) rallied from a 15-point deficit behind its defense against Arizona State on Thursday before coming up just short in a 66-62 loss. The Bears did the same thing to Arizona, keying a big run that put them up 10 with their zone.

Cal held on behind Crabbe and Cobbs, who scored on a layup with 39 seconds left and had 21 points.

Mark Lyons had 16 points, Solomon Hill added 13 and Brandon Ashley 12 for the Wildcats (20-3, 8-3), who had 17 turnovers to end a five-game winning streak.

NO. 9 SYRACUSE 77, ST. JOHN’S 58

SYRACUSE, N.Y. - James Southerland scored 13 points in his first appearance in seven games, C.J. Fair had 17 points and nine rebounds and Syracuse beat St. John’s.

It was the 37th straight victory in the Carrier Dome for the Orange (20-3, 8-2 Big East), extending the nation’s longest active home streak in Division I. The victory also gave coach Jim Boeheim his 35th season with 20 or more victories, an NCAA record.

St. John’s Coach Steve Lavin missed the game due to the overnight death of his 82-year-old father, Cap, leaving the reins to assistant coach Rico Hines. Lavin informed his coaching staff around 9 a.m. and then flew to New York City.

St. John’s (15-9, 7-5) had won six of seven, the only loss coming last week at Georgetown, and was 2-2 against ranked teams this season.

ILLINOIS 57, NO. 18 MINNESOTA 53

MINNEAPOLIS- Tyler Griffey capped a terrific week for Illinois with 16 points, and the Fighting Illini went 11 for 23 from three-point range in a victory over Minnesota.

Three days after Griffey’s buzzer-beating layup gave Illinois (17-8, 4-7) a 74-72 victory over top-ranked Indiana, Tracy Abrams swished a step-back three pointer with 18 seconds left to stretch the lead over Minnesota to four.

D.J. Richardson had 13 points and Brandon Paul added 10 points for the Illini. Austin Hollins had 16 points and four steals for the Golden Gophers (17-7, 5-6).

Sports, Pages 16 on 02/11/2013

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