Bloomington - There was one sign in the Assembly Hall crowd Saturday that summed up the Cardinals' performance against Indiana.
"This ain't Maui."
Those were the sentiments of the 17,456 in attendance including the IU players and coaches. For the first time all season, the Cards played an opposing team in its environment. The wins over Kansas and UCLA both came on neutral floors. Neither team had much of an advantage. This time Ball State faced a strong Indiana team and a crowd that didn't want the Cardinals even thinking about their sixth win in their house.
Ball State (5-2) was held to 41 percent shooting, including a dismal 38.5 percent in the second half. The free throw line was not kind to Ball State, either, as the Cardinals were 6-20.
Indiana head coach Mike Davis said that Chris Williams, Theron Smith and Petie Jackson were players that his team had to watch.
The Hoosiers listened.
Jackson was held to just eight points for the game - his season average is 19.1.
"I watched the Maui games and Kansas didn't play defense, UCLA didn't play any defense and Duke just kind of played when they wanted to," Davis said. "Jackson is a really good basketball player, but we played them last year, and a lot of people don't remember that we played them last year. He didn't play well against us because our guys guarded him. He is a guard that is really quick and fast, but he always pulls up for the jump shot - he never drives all the way. I just told our guys to stay into him, and once he gets by you, just stay because he is coming right back to you."
That game plan worked for IU, holding Jackson to just 3-11 shooting from the field. Smith finished with 13 points and Williams led the way with 18.
"We are the first team to really guard them," Davis said.
IU did a great deal of damage in the paint, out scoring the Cards 40-12. Center Lonnie Jones finished with 10 points, grabbing 11 rebounds.
"They really did a great job of getting into position initially when they came down the floor, and they tried to ride our guys out of the lane," head coach Tim Buckley said. "Indiana is not going to let you score in the paint."
We didn't take good enough care of the basketball, and they went on spurts that were really hard for us to come back on. We still feel good about ourselves - it is a long season, and we can not dwell on this too long.
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