No. 11 Hoosiers drop Nittany Lions

No. 11 Hoosiers drop Nittany Lions

Published Jan. 22, 2012 12:00 a.m. ET

Cody Zeller scored 18 points and No. 11 Indiana rallied for a 73-54 victory over Penn State on Sunday, hours after the Nittany Lions learned of the death of former football coach Joe Paterno.

The team was told of Paterno's death on the short bus ride from the hotel to Assembly Hall.

Team officials scrambled to get black strips attached to the players' blue road jerseys.

Indiana officials decided, less than an hour before tipoff, to hold a moment of silence in honor of Paterno, the coach who won an NCAA-record 409 games and was fired in November after child sex-abuse charges were filed against former defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky.

ADVERTISEMENT

''It's very sad on a variety of levels. Our heart goes out to his family and the entire Penn State community,'' Indiana athletic director Fred Glass said.

For a half, it looked like Penn State (10-11, 2-6 Big Ten) would ride its defense to a third straight victory in Bloomington.

But Indiana (16-4, 4-4) scored the first four points of the second half to take a 31-29 lead and never trailed again in ending a three-game losing streak.

Tim Frazier had 21 points and Nick Colella added 11 for Penn State, which was coming off an upset of No. 22 Illinois but has lost four of five.

Jordan Hulls scored all 14 of his points in the second half for the Hoosiers.

Penn State used a 9-3 run to go up 13-10 and they held the lead for most of the half thanks to limiting one of the nation's best offenses to 40.9 percent shooting.

The Hoosiers turned things around quickly in the second half.

Indiana tied the score with a putback on the opening possession, and took the lead when Verdell Jones scored on a layup after a Penn State turnover.

Indiana followed that with consecutive 3-pointers from Christian Watford and a third from Hulls to make it 40-35. When Will Sheehey scored on a layup and Matt Roth hit o 3, the Hoosiers' lead was 45-35 with 13:04 to go.

The Hoosiers extended the lead to as much as 71-52 late in the second half.

There was a skirmish in the closing seconds in front of the Hoosiers' bench. Sheehey drew his second technical of the game and was ejected.

share