Leach has career-high night, scores 26 points against Minnesota

Minnesota coach Dan Monson said that IU senior center George Leach made his team pay throughout the game. \nLeach did, after all, have a career- and game-high night for the Hoosiers, scoring 26 points and grabbing eight rebounds.\nBut in the final seconds of IU's 73-71 loss at home to Minnesota (10-14, 2-10 Big Ten), it was Leach and the Hoosiers (12-11, 6-6) that paid. \nLeach came into the Minnesota game averaging 6.8 points per game. Against the Gophers, Leach had 17 points in the first half alone, making him the top scorer for IU in the first 20 minutes.\nAlthough only making six of 14 field goal attempts in the first half, Leach was able to score seven points in the last two minutes before halftime, and he only had one foul. \nIU coach Mike Davis said Leach struggled early but that further into the game they realized they needed to go inside.\n"Instead of shooting quick jump shots, you have to go with what's working for you," Davis said. "And tonight, George Leach, he was that guy."\nLeach picked up his fourth personal foul almost 13 minutes into the second half but returned with 6:35 remaining after freshman forward Pat Ewing Jr. fouled out.\nWith just 3.6 seconds left in the game and with the score tied at 71-71, the unthinkable happened. After a career-high night, Leach picked up his fifth personal foul, sending Minnesota's top scorer, freshman forward Kris Humphries, to the line to shoot two free throws.\nLeach watched from the bench as Humphries sank the two shots. \nHe watched as the Hoosiers were unable to make a basket to tie or win the game. \nSophomore guard Marshall Strickland, who had 12 points in the game, said he didn't think Leach's last foul was the only thing that cost them the game.\n"George, he did a lot of great things for us tonight," Strickland said. "It was a bunch of things that added up and everybody relaxing on certain plays, and it really killed us."\nLeach had his previous season-high 12 points when IU made the trip to Minnesota in January. The Hoosiers prevailed in that game in overtime, 86-81. \nThe 32 minutes Leach was on the court Wednesday night was one of the best performances of his entire career, and yet his team suffered a two-point loss to Minnesota, who has dwelled at the bottom of the Big Ten the entire conference season. \nWhen asked what his feelings were after the IU loss to Minnesota, Leach said he felt only one emotion.\n"Embarrassed," Leach said. "There ain't nothing else I can say. Just embarrassed."\n-- Contact staff writer Natalie A. Trout at natrout@indiana.edu.