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Gordon's 26 Lifts Indiana Past Oakland 81-54

CRISS GOFF, Associated Press

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. (AP) — Evan Gordon scored a season-high 26 points and had the crowd chanting his name in Indiana's 81-54 rout of Oakland on Tuesday night.

The senior guard added five rebounds and shot 10-of-12 from the field to help the Hoosiers improve to 8-2 with their second straight victory.

Troy Williams scored 13 points, Yogi Ferrell had 10 and Noah Vonleh finished with eight points and 10 rebounds as the Hoosiers shot 50 percent from the field. Indiana extended its nonconference home winning streak to 36.

Oakland (2-8) lost its 11th straight away from home. The Golden Grizzlies started 0-7 against a difficult schedule that included North Carolina, UCLA, California and Gonzaga. It won't get easier. They next face No. 5 Michigan State on Saturday.

Gordon made his first eight shots, one shy of matching a school record, before Oakland center Corey Petros blocked a layup. Gordon started 7-of-7 from the field in a win over North Florida on Saturday before missing his final two shots to finish with 15 points. That was Gordon's first double-figure outing in five games.

Gordon's brother, Eric, now a starting guard for the New Orleans Pelicans, starred at Indiana during the 2007-08 season before departing early for the draft. During the game, Eric tweeted, "My bro is on FIRE!!!!!"

Indiana, which entered leading the nation in rebounding margin at plus-15, dominated the glass. Oakland, which came in with a rebound margin of minus-8.6, was outrebounded 52-28.

The Golden Grizzlies, playing their first season in the Horizon League, dropped to 2-31 all-time against teams from the Big Ten. They shot 32 percent from the field. Reserve Mitch Baenziger had 14 points while leading scorer Travis Bader was held to 11, more than 10 beneath his average. Bader shot 2-of-15 from the field and missed all 10 3-point attempts.

Oakland coach Greg Kampe is in his 30th season, the third-longest tenure behind Jim Boeheim and Mike Krzyzewski. His recent teams have never shown a high regard for defense. This year's outfit, like others, is heavily tilted toward offense, and the Hoosiers took full advantage.

Indiana capitalized on poor transition defense in scoring 12 fast-break points to build a 50-30 halftime lead. Gordon had 16 points on 6-of-6 shooting before the break.

He transferred from Arizona State during the offseason and has provided Indiana an important threat off the bench. His transition layup gave the Hoosiers an early 15-5 lead and they never looked back. The Golden Grizzlies were never closer than 18 in the second half.

(© Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

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