Assoicated Press
Assoicated Press
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — Indiana already had the nation’s top scoring team.
With a short break and some extra practice, the Hoosiers are getting even better.
Cody Zeller finished with 24 points and six rebounds, Christian Watford added 17 points and No. 6 Indiana continued its dominant offense in Friday’s 88-52 rout over Florida Atlantic.
“I think we’re playing better defense, we’re playing better in transition, I think our defense is the reason we do so well on offense,” Victor Oladipo said. “We have a lot of weapons, we have the big fellow inside and different players scoring. But when we play defense and we score off turnovers, we play at a high level, we score easy baskets.”
Whatever the explanation, the Hoosiers (11-1) have been efficient since Saturday’s loss to Butler.
They are a combined 64 of 106 from the field (60.4 percent) in the past two games, have limited those overmatched opponents to 36 of 110 (32.8 percent shooting) and won the games by a combined total of 75 points. On Friday, they made 26 of 27 free-throws.
Those numbers would be even more lopsided if coach Tom Crean hadn’t pulled his primary players late in the game — or if Indiana hadn’t gone through a cold spell in the closing minutes.
But none of those things mattered to a team that is playing as if it belongs back in the No. 1 spot in the AP poll.
Zeller controlled the inside all night as Indiana held a 41-28 rebounding edge, and he had plenty of help.
Watford was 5 of 9 from the floor. Oladipo had 16 points and eight rebounds. Jordan Hulls finished with 10 points, and Will Sheehey scored nine, falling one short of putting five Hoosiers in double figures for the second time this week.
Freshman Hanner Mosquera-Perea, who was suspended by the NCAA for Indiana’s first nine games for accepting improper benefits from a school booster, delivered his best game, too, scoring four points and grabbing 10 rebounds in 14 minutes.
Could his emergence make the Hoosiers even better?
“It was the quickest 10 rebounds I’ve ever seen, man,” Zeller said. “That’s what he does, that’s what he brings to the table for us, he’s going to help us a lot.”
It was a rough night for Florida Atlantic (5-7), which went seven minutes without a basket in the first half and couldn’t get closer than 28 points in the second half.
Only one player, Greg Gantt, scored in double figures, finishing with 25 points — four short of breaking Earnest Crumbley’s school scoring record (1,559 points). Only two players had more than two rebounds for the Owls — backup Kelvin Penn (six) and center Dragan Sekelja (five).
Coach Mike Jarvis was resigned to the fact that it was going to be this kind of night for his team.
“I knew it was going to be almost impossible,” Jarvis said. “Even if we have all of our players, we don’t Indiana beat right now. But I want to get a team good enough where we can come back here and beat their butts and that’s going to be one of my goals for myself before I die.”
Indiana came into the game leading the nation in scoring (89.2 points) and No. 3 in field goal shooting (52.1 percent).
Playing twice in three nights and having some extra time to work on the finer points only helped. The Hoosiers opened the game by going 9 of 12 from the floor and pulled away quickly.
Zeller tied the score at 6 on a 15-foot jumper and broke the final tie of the night with a three-point play on Indiana’s next possession. Oladipo followed that with a driving layup, Sheehey made a 15-footer and a 3-pointer, and the Hoosiers were off on a 20-2 spurt. When it ended, the Hoosiers led 24-8 midway through the first half.
They weren’t finished.
After a 3 from Gantt, Indiana went on an 18-6 run to make it 42-17. Things went so well that Oladipo even made a 3 off the top of the backboard — a play that prompted Jarvis to walk onto the floor to argue that the ball had gone over the backboard and was out of bounds.
No. 22 NOTRE DAME 89, NIAGARA 67
SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Jack Cooley had 24 points and 15 rebounds, both season highs, to lead Notre Dame over Niagara.
The 6-foot-9 senior jumped out to a quick start, tying his season-high game total of 20 points by halftime. The Fighting Irish led 42-34 at the break.
Niagara (5-7) committed 11 fouls in the first half and the Irish (12-1) took advantage, hitting 12 of 14 (86 percent) free throws. Cooley made half of those and was perfect from the stripe.
The Irish got rolling as the game wore on, shooting a season-high 62 percent in their 10th consecutive victory. They put the game away with a 23-7 run during a 7-minute span midway through the second half, extending their lead to 20.
Antoine Mason led the Purple Eagles with 17 points.
It was Cooley’s eighth double-double in his last 10 games. Freshman forward Cameron Biedscheid had 15 points for Notre Dame, shooting 4 of 4 from 3-point range.
The winning streak is the longest for the Irish since a 10-game run four years ago.
No. 4 Duke women cruise
LOS ANGELES — Elizabeth Williams had 21 points and eight rebounds in leading fourth-ranked Duke to a 97-63 rout of Cal State Bakersfield in the Women of Troy Classic.
The victory was coach Joanne P. McCallie’s 150th in 182 games at Duke, making her the third-fastest coach in Division I history to reach the mark.
Haley Peters added 16 points and Tricia Liston had 14 for the Blue Devils (9-0), who had six players in double figures in their first game in 12 days after completing finals.
They play host Southern California on Saturday in the final day of the four-team event.
Tyonna Outland scored 16 points for Bakersfield (2-11), which lost its fourth in a row and 10th in 11 games. The Roadrunners committed a season-high 27 turnovers, leading to 30 points by Duke.
No. 5 NOTRE DAME 83, No. 22 TEXAS A&M 74
LAS VEGAS — Skylar Diggins scored 24 points and Natalie Achonwa added 22 points and 14 rebounds as Notre Dame beat Texas A&M in the championship game of the World Vision Classic.
In a rematch of the 2011 NCAA tournament championship game, won by Texas A&M, the Fighting Irish also got 19 points from Kayla McBride and 15 from Jewell Loyd.
Muffet McGraw earned her 600th win as Notre Dame coach in the first meeting between the teams since Texas A&M won the title.
Notre Dame (9-1) took control with a 13-0 run that turned a 48-46 deficit into a 59-48 lead with 11:25 remaining. Diggins and McBride both had four points during the spurt, and Achonwa supplied the final three points of the run.
Kelsey Bone led Texas A&M (8-4) with 28 points and 10 rebounds.
The Aggies committed 26 turnovers, compared to 13 for the Fighting Irish.
No. 7 KENTUCKY 66, UC SANTA BARBARA 38
SANTA BARBARA, Calif. — A’dia Mathies scored 19 points and Kentucky extended its winning streak to nine games with a victory over UC Santa Barbara.
The Wildcats (10-1) went 2-0 on their Pacific Coast road trip that began with an 80-62 win over Pepperdine in Malibu on Tuesday.
DeNesha Stallworth and Samarie Walker each scored 12 for the Wildcats. Stallworth, a 6-foot-3 junior from Richmond, Calif., stood tall in her home state. She had 17 points against Pepperdine.
Mathies, a senior guard from Louisville, hit four 3-pointers, three of them in the second half, as Kentucky broke it open after leading 28-20 at halftime.
The Gauchos (4-7) committed 17 of their 28 turnovers in the first half against Kentucky’s pressure defense.
No. 8 CALIFORNIA 88, No. 19 KANSAS 79
BERKELEY, Calif. — Layshia Clarendon scored a season-high 28 points, one of five players in double figures who helped California beat Kansas.
Gennifer Brandon added 17 points and 10 rebounds for the Golden Bears (9-1), who matched the best start in school history. Talia Caldwell made all five of her shots and had 12 points. Reshanda Gray added 13 and Afure Jemerigbe scored 10.
Angel Goodrich had 21 points to lead the Jayhawks (9-2) and Carolyn Davis added 16. Kansas fell to 2-19 under coach Bonnie Henrickson against teams ranked in the top 10.
No. 13 PURDUE 78, IUPUI 53
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Courtney Moses scored 18 points, Drey Mingo added 13 and Purdue used a big second-half run to extend its best start in a decade.
The Boilermakers (11-1) led 36-28 at halftime but pulled away from IUPUI with a 14-2 spurt in the first 6:11 of the second half.
DeAirra Goss had 24 points for the Jaguars (6-7), who shot 36.7 percent.
Mosses also had four assists and four steals. Sam Ostarello added 15 points and KK Houser had 13 for Purdue, which has won six straight and is off to its best start since 2002-03.
No. 14 LOUISVILLE 106, WAGNER 32
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Megan Deines scored 19 points and eight of Louisville’s nine players reached double figures in a rout of Wagner.
The Cardinals (11-2), who led 47-12 at halftime, shot 60.9 percent from the floor (39 of 64). Deines was 8 for 10.
Although Louisville surpassed 90 points on four occasions earlier this season, this was the Cardinals’ first 100-point game and marked their second-largest margin of victory behind a 109-29 win over Coastal Carolina on Dec. 18, 1996.
Louisville had 22 steals, led by Jude Schimmel with eight, and forced 31 turnovers. Schimmel also scored 15 points.
Jordyn Peck had 15 points off the bench to lead the Seahawks (1-8), who shot 24.5 percent (12 of 49).
No. 21 SOUTH CAROLINA 65, SOUTH CAROLINA STATE 45
COLUMBIA, S.C. — Tiffany Mitchell had 21 points and 11 rebounds, Aleighsa Welch also finished with a double-double and South Carolina beat South Carolina State.
Welch had 16 points and 14 rebounds — eight offensive — for the Gamecocks (11-1), who bounced back with a strong performance after losing to No. 1 Stanford 53-49 this week. Elem Ibiam scored 11 points and Ieasia Walker had six steals.
Tiara Knott had 14 points before fouling out for the Bulldogs (8-3), held scoreless for a stretch of nearly 8 minutes.
Jarvis wound up with a technical foul, but all that did was hand Indiana two more points on the way to a 55-25 halftime lead.
The Hoosiers put it away by scoring seven straight points early in the second half to make it 64-29.
“Our guys were locked in. They had a great week, they’ve had a great year,” Crean said. “I’m glad they’re getting a break, a chance to go home and recharge a little bit and see their families, and the great thing about it is they’re not playing like they need one. Our team is full throttle right now and they’re only going to get better.”