Conference favorite?

IOWA CITY, Iowa -- The scene looked ominous for the Hoosiers and perfect for Iowa. \nSenior guard Dane Fife stood outside IU's team huddle, head slumped and eyes toward the parque floor in Carver-Hawkeye Arena Sunday. \nThe 6-foot-4 Hoosier guard had just picked up two fouls in 13 seconds and was relegated to the bench with 16:17 remaining in the first half. \nLast season, Fife picked up two early fouls, and his defensive assignment, Hawkeye guard Luke Recker, went nuts, scoring 27 points and erasing a 17-point halftime deficit that carried Iowa to a 71-66 victory. \nThings were different Sunday. \nAnd IU coach Mike Davis -- and Fife -- have Kyle Hornsby to thank. The 6-5 guard matched up against the 6-6 Recker and held him to 5-of-13 shooting and 12 points, six below his season average. \nThe result was a 77-66 IU victory that silenced a rowdy crowd of 15,500 in Iowa City. After Fife left the game, Recker was all Hornsby's. All afternoon. \nAnd instead of letting Recker confuse him, Hornsby reversed the roles. \n"The key to guarding (Recker) is to not guard him one way all the time," Hornsby said. "One time really get into him and body him. The next time play off of him and chase him. Play on the high side one time, play on the low side one time. Figure out where he wants to go and get in his way."\nHornsby did that, and Recker never got hot. He scored only two points in the first half and hit only two of his six three pointers on the afternoon. \nEarly in the second half, Recker began to warm up when he poured in two three pointers in the first two minutes. Recker's buckets helped No. 13 Iowa (13-5, 2-2 Big Ten) surge to within five points, but Hornsby went right back to work, holding Recker to just two field goals the rest of the way and zero points in the last five minutes.\nRecker never attempted a free throw in 35 minutes, and there wasn't any hesitation by IU (11-5, 4-0) to keep Hornsby on Recker, despite Fife's re-entry into the game following halftime. \n"(Recker) is going to make some big baskets," Fife said. "We never let him get into a rhythm, other than those two straight threes. At halftime, we were like 'We're going to keep Hornsby on him.'" \nHornsby's help defense wasn't bad, either. \nIU suffocated Iowa inside and out and kept 6-8 forward Reggie Evans from settling into the flow. Evans, who spent most of the afternoon fighting the defense of forwards Jarrad Odle and Jeff Newton, finished with seven points and nine rebounds. He averages 18.3 points and nearly 12 rebounds. \nIowa shot 47 percent from the floor, but Davis ignored that and focused on his squad's sticky defense.\n"Hornsby was great," Davis said. "I'm proud of our guys and the effort defensively."\nRecker and Evans -- Iowa's only double-digit scorers and the Big Ten's top two scorers -- sat out most of the practices preceding Sunday's game, and Iowa coach Steve Alford shouldered some of the blame for the lackluster play of his dynamic duo. \nBut Recker's hip flexor and Evans' head and chest cold didn't serve as excuses. Instead, frustration bogged down Iowa and credit streamed IU's way. \n"I played (Evans) too much," Alford said. "I played Luke 35 minutes, and that's my mistake. When you get in foul trouble (like IU did), you have to have people step up. We didn't have the scoring punch that we usually get."\nThe seven points were a season low for Evans, whose only other single-digit scoring game came against then-No. 1 Duke. Evans also didn't get his signature double-double; he has 33 career double-doubles and 11 this season. \nThe 12 points for Recker was his third-lowest output of the season and the second time in three games the Auburn, Ind., native has been held to 12 or fewer. \n"If we keep Evans and Recker under wraps, under control, those other guys, I don't think can beat you," Hornsby said.\nSunday, they didn't.