No. 18 Indiana spoils Spartans’ bid for outright Big Ten crown
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- All No. 18 Indiana wanted to do after Tuesday night's big victory was get back to work.
Heck, the Hoosiers didn't even see their 70-55 victory over No. 5 Michigan State as a milestone achievement.
Cody Zeller scored 18 points, Victor Oladipo had 13 and Christian Watford finished with 10 points and a career-high 14 rebounds to lead the Hoosiers (23-7, 10-7 Big Ten) to their third win over a top-five team this season.
"When we beat top teams like that we're nasty, we're scrappy, we're fighting," said senior Verdell Jones, who had 12 points. "But we haven't accomplished anything yet."
The latest victory ended the Hoosiers' longest losing streak in the Michigan State series (six) while preventing the Spartans (24-6, 13-4) from clinching an outright league crown on Indiana's home court.
"When we first got here, we talked about uncharted water. It was for everybody. It's the same thing now, when you're climbing and you're getting better," Indiana coach Tom Crean said. "We cannot get caught up in anything but that climb and making that climb better."
Indiana's climb has put it in line for its first NCAA Tournament bid since 2008.
But the Hoosiers must still play archrival Purdue on Sunday and the Big Ten tournament in Indianapolis before they can worry about, finally, ending the postseason drought.
"We didn't defend them, we didn't rebound, we didn't execute," Spartans coach Tom Izzo said after losing to Crean, his ex-assistant, for the first time in seven games. "I think Indiana deserves a lot of credit for putting us in that position."
Draymond Green finished with 29 points, including 16 straight during a stretch of about 12 minutes, and eight rebounds for Michigan State.
AROUND THE NATION
DUKE HANGS ON -- At Winston-Salem, N.C., Ryan Kelly had a career-high 23 points and No. 4 Duke (26-4, 13-2 Atlantic Coast) held on for a 79-71 win over Wake Forest (13-16, 4-11).
BADGERS CLINCH BYE -- At Madison, Wis., Jordan Taylor scored 22 points to lead No. 14 Wisconsin (22-8, 11-6 Big Ten), which clinched a first-round bye in the conference tournament, to a 52-45 win over Minnesota (17-13, 5-12).
VANDY UPSETS GATORS -- At Nashville, Tenn., John Jenkins hit six 3-pointers and finished with 22 points as Vanderbilt (21-9, 10-5 Southeastern) clinched a first-round bye in the conference tournament with a 77-67 win over No. 16 Florida (22-8, 10-5).
MOUNTAIN WEST CONFERENCE
COWBOYS REACH 20 WINS -- At Laramie, Wyo., Leonard Washington had 23 points and 12 rebounds -- his second straight double-double -- to lead Wyoming over Texas Christian, 71-59. The Cowboys (20-9, 6-7) reached 20 wins for the first time in nine years. J.R. Cadot scored 11 points to lead the Horned Frogs (17-12, 7-6).
