Bracey goes down, but IU keeps it up in Big Ten win

With their leading scorer Bracey Wright out with an injury and their second leading point-man D.J. White battling double-teams, IU still found a way to win. The Hoosiers' resourcefulness led to a 68-63 win against Penn State Wednesday at Assembly Hall. \nWright had 17 points before spraining his left ankle and White only had six. Several Hoosiers stepped up, with three topping their season averages to replace the two leading scorers' production. Freshman A.J. Ratliff scored 13 points, junior Marshall Strickland added 12 and freshman Robert Vaden chipped in 11.\nIU coach Mike Davis said he expects Wright to play Sunday at No. 1 Illinois when he addressed the media. \n"I thought our guys did a great job of hanging in there when Bracey went down in the second half," Davis said. \nWhite came into Wednesday's game having scored 23 points in back-to-back games. Penn State matched-up Aaron Johnson on White, and Johnson, with the help of double-teams, held White to six points and only two of three from the field.\nDavis said opponent's double-teams will be a frequent sight for the freshman.\n"We have to play inside-out," Davis said. "It's going to be tough on D.J. for the remainder of the season to get teams to play him one-on-one. It's new for us to have an inside guy to go to. We want to make sure we go inside and give him a look every time."\nWhite said he knew coming into the game that he was going to get double-teamed and tried to involve his teammates as a result. The six shots White took is a drastic decrease from the past two games when he took 33 shots -- 16 against Minnesota and 17 against Iowa.\nThe freshman said when he sees double teams, it's no time to be selfish.\n"When you've got two people on you, that means one of your teammates is open," White said. "If my teammates keep hitting shots, why be selfish? It's not about individual things. It's about the team. The team had my back tonight."\nPartly as a result of Penn State's double teams, IU used improved ball movement and had 17 assists -- the most the Hoosiers have had all year -- with only nine turnovers.\nAlthough several Hoosiers stepped up for Wright and White, seldom-used senior walk-on Ryan Tapak might have made the biggest play. With 2:15 to go and IU only up four points, Vaden found Tapak in the corner, and the senior hit his first three-pointer of the season to put the Hoosiers ahead by seven. \nPreviously, Tapak was 0-for-9 from three-point range for the season and hadn't played since the Northwestern loss Jan. 5.\nPenn State coach Ed DeChellis specifically pointed out Tapak's three as a big play. DeChellis said he was surprised Tapak hit the shot and was even playing because "he wasn't on the scouting report."\n"I didn't really have a reason to be on the scouting report," Tapak said. "It's been a while since I've played. It's nice after nine misses to finally hit one."\nPenn State's Mike Walker came back down and answered Tapak's three and eventually cut IU's lead to three. But the Nittany Lion's Geary Claxton missed a pull-up jumper with 27 seconds left and Vaden rebounded to secure the victory.\nVaden said the only thing going through his mind when Wright went down was that the team needed to step up.\n"Any time you're best player goes down and your best scorer goes down, somebody needs to step up on defense and offense to keep the team going," Vaden said. "We did that tonight."\n-- Contact Staff Writer John Rodgers at jprodger@indiana.edu.