'CAT'ASTROPHIC

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- For the first 5 minutes and 27 seconds of Saturday's game against Kentucky, IU looked like it had taken the lessons learned from North Carolina, UConn and Notre Dame and was using them to its advantage.\nBut in the end, the Hoosiers could not bang with the big boys as the Wildcats front court of freshman Randolph Morris, senior Chuck Hayes and 7-foot-3-inch sophomore Shagari Alleyne combined for 35 points and handed IU its fourth straight loss, 73-58. \n"I thought today we started off great," said IU coach Mike Davis. "I thought our guys played with a lot of energy. It was a big difference than how we played on Wednesday night (against Notre Dame)."\nAhead 13-4, everything was going the Hoosiers' way -- the offense was moving, the defense was stingy and their shots were falling. \nThen, the runs hit.\nFirst, it was a 7-0 run to pull the Wildcats within two at 13-11 with 11:53 left in the half. Then, the Wildcats finished the first half with a 22-9 run -- which included a 15-4 spurt -- leaving Kentucky ahead 33-24 at the break. \nThe second half didn't fare any differently for IU. \nKentucky jumped out to an 11-point lead a little more than a minute into the second half. But with 13:29 remaining, the Wildcats went on a 19-5 run, effectively putting IU away for good. \nOnce again, the Hoosiers shot themselves out of the game with the exception of IU junior Bracey Wright, whose 31 points were more than half of the Hoosiers' 58 points. \n"I thought Bracey carried us early and probably played a little bit too much today again, but there's no way I can afford to take him out of the game," Davis said. "So until we establish a rotation he's going to log a lot of minutes. And today he accepted that. And he played well." \nIU shot 38 percent from the field for the game, going 10 for 23 from behind the arc. The Hoosiers made only four two-point baskets in the second half.\nWright did what he could to keep the Hoosiers in the game with his 31 on nine of 17 shooting, including six of 12 from three-point range. \nBeing the only Hoosier to light up the scoreboard, Wright still doesn't think IU is a one-man show.\n"As much as people say that, my mind never strays that way," Wright said. "I don't think that one person can win a game or one person can do things by himself. It's all a team effort. Without a team I would not be able to get open, give me the ball or have people put me in positions to score as many points I've scored on any given night. Without them, it wouldn't be possible for me to do what I do."\nBut his help just wasn't there Saturday afternoon. \nFor the first time all season, freshman Robert Vaden didn't reach double digits in scoring, finishing with six points. \nNo Hoosier besides Wright scored more than eight. \nFellow freshman D.J. White had eight points, sophomore Pat Ewing Jr. added three points and guard Marshall Strickland helped with four points. \nWhite said Wright took on the role as leader, but no one followed.\n"Well I mean, we want to make it a team effort and he did what he had to do to lead us," White said. "He led us and the rest of us just didn't step up."\nIt's not just the players who think the scoring needs to spread out besides Wright.\nDavis said just give it time for his team to start an offensive flow.\n"We need to get more balance out of our offense than Bracey scoring 31 of our 58 points, but it's going to come," Davis said. "It will definitely come if we can stay focused, and not focus on the losses. Because at this point we knew it would be our tough stretch." \nKentucky Coach Tubby Smith threw a zone at the Hoosiers a few days after IU faltered against Notre Dame's zone.\n"We did zone them a lot today and I thought that's when we made the run in the first half," Smith said. "We did a good job of making them take some time because they are a good transition offensive team. I thought we would change it up right before the half, and with about eight minutes to go in the half we went to zone and extended our pressure. That gave us some turnovers and also kept them at bay the rest of the half." \nBesides using the zone against the offensively-challenged Hoosiers, Kentucky's front court took advantage of the undersized and young IU big men, outscoring the Hoosiers 38-10 in the paint. \n"They did a great job of going inside to their post guys," Davis said. \n-- Contact senior writer Josh Weinfuss at jweinfus@indiana.edu.