Orange Squeezed

The IU men's basketball team defended Branch McCracken Court yet again, and also defended against any late surge from Big Ten foe Illinois.\nThe Hoosiers did not allow an Illini field goal in the last five minutes and 22 seconds of the game en route to a 65-61 victory Saturday afternoon in Assembly Hall.\nThe win moved IU's home record to 13-0 this season and marked the 15th straight victory in its home arena.\nThe Hoosiers' formula for success against the Illini was a familiar one for the team, IU coach Kelvin Sampson said after the game.\n"We won this game today with our defense," he said. "Our defense was really good when it counted."\nThree players scored in double figures for the Hoosiers (17-6, 7-3), including senior guard Rod Wilmont, who scored 17 points on 8-for-16 shooting from the field. Freshman guard Armon Bassett tallied 15 points, five rebounds and five assists in the win and hit a layup with less than one minute remaining to put the Hoosiers up for good.\nAfter Bassett's layup, the Hoosiers capitalized on Illinois' mistakes and maintained a slim lead. Illini guard Rich McBride missed a wide-open 3-pointer with 23 seconds left, and the Illini quickly fouled IU guard A.J. Ratliff after the Hoosiers rebounded McBride's miss. Ratliff went 1-for-2 on his free-throw attempts, giving the Illini yet another chance to take the lead. But a strong Hoosier defense forced a five-second violation call on Illini forward Shaun Pruitt. IU senior guard Earl Calloway then hit a pair of free throws with 3.8 seconds remaining to seal the victory.\n"I just wanted to pressure him," junior forward D.J. White said about his defense on Pruitt. "One thing coach always talks about is when someone picks the ball up, I knew the other four of my teammates were gonna deny their men, so I just had to do a good job of taking away his vision away so he couldn't get a pass off."\nWhite displayed his defensive prowess throughout the entire game, tallying three blocks and three steals in 36 minutes.\nThe Hoosiers held the Illini to less than 35 percent shooting in the second half of play and limited them to one 3-pointer. McBride, who poured in 13 points in the first half, was held scoreless in the second half of play.\nWhite said that in addition to the Hoosiers' tougher defense, IU made improvements in several other areas as well from the last time the two teams met.\n"Back when we were at Champaign (Ill.), we just didn't execute our offense, and on defense we just weren't there," he said. "First half we started off slow. But second half we came together as a team. We had good point guard leadership by Earl and Armon; Rod hit big shots. We just came together as a team. We had to protect home."\nWith the improvements in defense and rebounding, Sampson said he was pleased with how Saturday's game played out.\n"I was happy the way we won the game," he said. "We've had some games in here this year where the games weren't very close. But this time of the year, you find out a lot about your team. I found out a lot about my team today. I was really happy about this win"