Purdue unable to engineer victory

If there was one change from the first half to the second in IU's 85-58 victory over Purdue Wednesday night, it was IU's growing lead. \nIt started at 12, thanks to IU's stifling defense, which held the Boilermakers to just 22 points in the first half. \nThen IU's offense took over, and the lead grew -- to 17, to 24, grew all the way to 31, before finally settling on the comfortable size of 27 as the Hoosiers (11-4, 2-1) cruised to their second Big Ten win. \n"Indiana played harder, they played smarter, they were faster to the basketball," Purdue coach Matt Painter said after the game. "They just flat kicked us." \nFour Hoosiers scored in double figures in the blow-out win. Freshman guard Joey Shaw led the way with 19 points in just 18 minutes, while junior guard A.J. Ratliff, in his first game returning from a wrist injury, hit on a perfect 6-of-6 from the field -- including 4-for-4 from the 3-point line. \nSenior guard Earl Calloway and freshman guard Armon Bassett chipped in 13 and 11, respectively, and junior forward D.J. White added eight points and five blocks, tying a career high.\nThe Hoosiers seized the lead early thanks to Purdue's scoring difficulties. By the 10 minute mark of the first half, the Boilermakers had mustered only six points. \nIU extended that lead to 12 by the end of the first half and never looked back, giving IU coach Kelvin Sampson his first win in the IU-Purdue rivalry. \n"It (felt like a rivalry) all day," Sampson said. "Our maintenance people haven't talked to me all year. They talked to me today. 'It's a big game coach,' they said. I said 'I got you.'"\nThe 27-point margin of victory is the fifth largest for an IU team against the Boilermakers.\nIf Wednesday's game betrayed any rivalry-style controversy, it was in the form of an exchange between Calloway and Purdue's bench in the first half. After Calloway hit a 3-pointer in front of Painter, he turned to the Boilermaker bench and, according to Painter, said something regarding Purdue's choice "not to guard" him; Painter had told his team to play off Calloway and focus on other shooters. Calloway apologized for the comment later in the game, and Painter said the situation was "water under the bridge." \n"I didn't think that was right," Painter said. "But it's not the story line here … I'm just not going to take it from a kid. I'm sorry. I'm going to defend my team … there's a right way to go about it, but when someone crosses that line, I think you need to stand up for yourself and your team."\nThat exchange aside, the 189th installment of the IU-Purdue in-state feud featured little in the way of tumult. Instead, it served as a second reminder -- Sunday's 73-51 win over Michigan State being the first -- that the Hoosiers might be developing into a Big Ten contender. \nSampson said that development was a product of his players' increased familiarity with their roles and the team's identity. \n"It's not easy," Sampson said. "You're not going to be a January or February team in November or December. That's why early on I just asked our kids to compete. Offensively, we were bad early. But that's why we wanted to build a foundation with defense and understand our identity and build on that.\n"We're becoming a solid team," Sampson said. "Not great -- maybe not even very good -- but solid"