March 21, 2008
Weems' career night sends Indiana packing
RALEIGH, North Carolina (Ticker) -- Sonny Weems made sure to bring Indiana's tumultuous season to an end.
Weems scored a career-high 31 points for ninth-seeded Arkansas en route to an 86-72 win over the eighth-seeded Hoosiers in the first round of the NCAA Tournament's East Regional on Friday.
Arkansas (23-11) notched its first win in the NCAAs since 1999 and set itself up for a second-round clash with top-seeded North Carolina on Sunday.
Allegations of recruiting violations, a midseason coaching change and a threatened player boycott signaled the beginning of the end for Indiana (25-8), which was 22-4 at one point this season but dropped four of its final seven contests. The Hoosiers also endured three player suspensions during the year.
Due in large part to their tough zone defense, the Razorbacks frustrated standout freshman Eric Gordon all game long. The Big Ten's leading scorer was held to just eight points on a dreadful 3-for-15 shooting.
Despite getting just two points on 1-for-7 shooting from Gordon in the first half, Indiana only trailed Arkansas, 37-30, at intermission.
With Gordon rendered ineffective, D.J. White tried to carry the Hoosiers, scoring the first six points of the second half to get his team to within four points at 40-36.
The Razorbacks responded with five consecutive points but Armon Bassett started his second-half 3-point barrage with two shots from the arc within 35 seconds of each other to trim the lead to 45-42 at the 15:03 mark.
After Indiana and Arkansas exchanged baskets, Lance Stemler followed a layup from Weems with his third 3-pointer of the game to bring Indiana to within 49-47 with 12:30 remaining.
However, the Hoosiers could find no answer for Weems, who caught fire with 10 of his 18 second-half points during a 23-13 stretch that catapulted Arkansas into a 72-60 advantage with 3:24 left in the game.
Bassett buried the final one of his five second-half 3-pointers to cut the Razorbacks' advantage to single digits but Arkansas - the seventh-best free-throw shooting team in the Southeastern Conference - hit 13-of-16 from the foul line over the final 2:08 to secure the victory.
White had 22 points and nine rebounds in his final college game while Bassett added 21 for the Hoosiers.
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