Freshmen pair lead Hoosier comeback attempt

MINNEAPOLIS -- He tried.\nAfter a 10 minute and 25 second span in which IU scored two points to start the second half and allow the Minnesota Golden Gophers to jump to a 47-32 lead, freshman D.J. White tried to put the Hoosiers on his back and win their fifth straight game.\n"It was just a drought," White said. "We just couldn't find the hole. I mean our offense was working, we just couldn't put the ball in the hole."\nThe Big Ten Freshman of the Year candidate finished with 23 points, 12 of which came in the last 5:35 of the game. \nDuring that 10 minute stretch in the second half, the Hoosiers failed to give White enough touches to make an impact, not going inside against Minnesota 7-footer Jeff Hagen who tried to neutralize the 6-foot-9-inch White. \n"I wouldn't say my teammates forgot about me, just it was how we were doing things at that time," White said. \nClassmate Robert Vaden said the team didn't forget him. They just didn't go inside -- similar to the first half, in which junior guard Bracey Wright went without touching the ball for possessions at a time. \n"I don't think we forgot about him," Vaden said. "I don't know, for some reason we just weren't going inside. I think we should start looking more for him in the post." \nThere's only so much a team can do. In Wednesday's game, Vaden realized that it just wasn't the Hoosiers' day.\n"I guess things just weren't going our way," Vaden said. "We had some open shots. They just weren't falling. And we probably should have went inside to DJ some more."\nVaden finally began to break out of his shell -- a topic IU coach Mike Davis has touched on before. \nThe Indianapolis native had a stretch of eight straight points minutes before White started his barrage on Minnesota, finishing with 13. \nVaden said he doesn't like to force shots, which is the cause of his lack of scoring that dominated his high school days. \nWhite said the game plan was to get the ball down low and let the game work from there.\n"Coach stressed 'get the ball inside', and that's what we did," White said.\nBut there's only so much the freshman can do. \nDuring the 10:25 stretch, the only Hoosier to score was junior guard Bracey Wright -- 5:07 into the second half. \nFollowing that shot, it took the Hoosiers another 5:18 to score any points. The next field goal IU made was a three-pointer from Vaden, which was followed by another three from him and then 'The White Show' started. \nBut it was too little, too late for the Hoosiers. \n"(Minnesota) did a great job doubling him," Davis said. "D.J. has a chance to be a very good ball player. He's a young boy but a talented ball player. Overall, at times I thought we panicked and forced it to him."\n-- Contact Staff Writer Josh Weinfuss at jweinfus@indiana.edu.