GoSycamores.com
Lake Buena Vista, Fla. -- Indiana State remained undefeated for the first time in six seasons with a 60-49 victory over Texas Tech in the quarterfinals of the 2011 Old Spice Classic held in front of 3,170 fans inside the HP Field House on the campus of Walt Disney World Resort.
ISU improved to 5-0 while Texas Tech fell to 3-1. The last time a Sycamore basketball team was 5-0 came in 2005-06 when ISU started with an 8-0 record. The Sycamores also evened their record to 6-6 all-time against current members of the Big 12 Conference.
The Sycamores were limited to just 35.7 percent shooting from the field, but more than made up for that by going 25-of-31 from the free throw line (80.6 percent) and forcing 18 Red Raider turnovers and converting them into 18 points. ISU held its fourth consecutive opponent under 60 points and improved to 19-0 under Greg Lansing when holding teams under 63 or more points, including a 9-0 mark when limiting them to 53 of fewer points).
“That's going to be a key for us," Greg Lansing said. "We've talked about it a
lot. We haven't played particularly well defensively, and this was going to be
a team that was going to come and be very physical, and very aggressive. And
our guys, other than a couple little stretches, one in each half, they really
did a good job.”
Jake Odum led the way for the Sycamores with 13 points, going 8-of-10 from the free throw line while RJ Mahurin came off the bench to score 10 points. ISU was led in rebounding by Myles Walker who pulled down six caroms and scored nine points. Lathan also scored nine while Carl Richard and Jordan Printy scored seven points each.
Indiana State nearly led from wire-to-wire against Texas Tech, save for a 22-22 tie with 6:43 left in the first half on a 3-pointer by Terran Petteway. The Sycamores got a conventional 3-point play from Justin Gant with 4:35 on the clock and added a put back by Myles Walker for a 27-22 advantage.
After Jaron Nash stopped the bleeding with a lay-up to cut the ISU lead down to 27-24, Carl Richard connected on a 3-pointer to make it 30-24 with two minutes to go. Richard scored on a driving lay-up with 36 seconds left to make it 32-26 in favor of the Sycamores heading into the half.
Odum drilled a 3-pointer out of the break to make it 35-26 Indiana state just 16 seconds into the secod half before Texas Tech whitled the lead down to just 36-31 on a pair of free throws by Jordan Tolbert with 16:40 to go.
ISU scored the game's next six points to race out to a 42-31 cushion on a run capped by a 3-pointer by Mahurin to send the lead up to 11 points. Mahurin drove to the basket again with 5:15 left in the game and converted a conventional 3-point play for a 53-41 lead with 5:15 left in the game.
The Sycamore lead would grow to as many as 13 points in the final two minutes with Odum hitting a free throw at the 39 second mark for a 60-47 lead. Nash hit a lay-up with 31 seconds left as ISU wound down the clock for a 60-49 victory.
Tolbert led the way with 20 points for Texas Tech.
The Sycamores will now face off against the winner of the Minnesota/DePaul contest on Friday, November 25 at the HP Fieldhouse. Tip-off is set for Noon (ET) and will be televised nationally on ESPN.
