Dixon, Davis draw spotlight

ATLANTA -- Juan Dixon wasn't needed nearly as badly by his Maryland team Monday night as he was on Saturday. With Dane Fife harassing Dixon all night, Dixon was held to 18 points, his lowest output in the tournament.\nFortunately for Dixon and the Terrapins, Lonny Baxter wasn't in foul trouble as he was in the game Saturday against Kansas. With Baxter out, Dixon poured in 33 points, 19 in the first half alone, to carry Maryland into the championship game.\nMonday night Dixon hit six shots, out of only had nine attempts. It was just the fifth time this season that he didn't shoot at least 10 shots in a game.\n"Fife played him well," Mike Davis said. "We knew he would be a handful. I think he's the best player we've played against this year other than Jason Williams. Fife was playing him the best he could play him."\nAfter scoring 10 points in the first 11 minutes of the game, Dixon had given Maryland a 21-11 lead and set a dizzying pace that IU couldn't control. But for the rest of the first half and the first 10 minutes of the second half, Dixon was silent.\nFife was doing his job.\n"Fife did a good job," Kyle Hornsby said. "I don't think anybody can guard him one-on-one."\nThat proved true at the most critical juncture of the game. After Jared Jeffries had given IU its first lead of the game at 44-42 with 9:53 left, the Terrapins didn't waste any time going back to its All-American.\nBlake spotted Dixon on the left wing for a three-pointer over Fife to put Maryland back on top, and the Terrapins would never give up again. \n"I got a great pass from Blake and was able to knock that one down," Dixon said.\nDixon's shot proved to be a back-breaker for the Hoosiers. His play had inspired Maryland all season long and his shot seemed to give the Terrapins a spurt that eventually carried them to the national title.\n"It just tells you he has no fear," Davis said. "If you're going to win a championship, your best player has to step up and make plays and he did that."\nBench\nTwo nights after outscoring the Hoosiers' starters 41-32, the IU bench could not provide the energy the Hoosiers desperately needed to sway the tide of the game.\nBefore Monday night's game, the IU bench had outscored the opponents' benches 126-65 in five tournament games. The 11 points by the Hoosiers' bench is its lowest output since it scored 11 points against Northwestern Mar. 2. Monday was just the sixth time the IU bench had been held to 11 points or less.\n"We just didn't get into the flow," A.J. Moye said. "We didn't play as much as normal."\nMoye did have a steal and a bucket in the closing moments of the first half, but he didn't do much more in just seven minutes of action.\nDonald Perry played 10 minutes and had three points, those came on a three-pointer at the buzzer that just made the final score look better for the Hoosiers. George Leach only saw two minutes of action and Jeff Newton had six points in 28 minutes, but missed five of his seven shots from the field.\nFree throws\nIn the first half the Hoosiers missed the front end of a one-and-one twice, missing an opportunity to cut the Terrapins' lead early. IU wouldn't have the same chances in the second half. The Hoosiers were two of seven from the foul line in the first half, and didn't get to the line in the second half.\nMeanwhile, Maryland was 20 of 28 from the foul line. Davis said the low number of chances at the free throw line was not a result of the officiating, but of the Terrapins' aggressiveness.\n"It was a well-called game," Davis said. "We fouled them. We had to foul. The reason we didn't draw fouls is because we took a lot of five-foot shots instead of taking the ball to the basket."\nJeffries' future\nAfter scoring 16 points in both games of the Final Four, Jeffries was asked about his plans to enter the NBA draft. Fife said he should, but Jeffries remained non-committal.\n"If I come back, this will be a great team," Jeffries said. "I'm going to take a little bit of time to just kind of decide what's going to be best for me and my family"