Dumes dominates, leads Indiana to first Big Ten win against Iowa

For a month, the Indiana Hoosiers waited... waited to get a rematch with Iowa, their best chance for a Big Ten win. An already-agonizing season could have become exponentially more miserable, but just when Tom Crean's kids began to push the panic button; Devan Dumes came to the rescue. The junior guard did it all in Assembly Hall on Wednesday evening, carrying the Hoosiers to their first conference win of 2009, a 68-60 decision over the hamstrung Hawkeyes.
 
After eight misses in league play, the Big Ten's most decorated basketball school--forced to dig out of the ditch created by the ill-fated Kelvin Sampson era--finally won a backyard battle. On a night when the Hoosiers played generally solid team defense, the biggest reason for their victory was the ability of Dumes, an Indianapolis native, to overshadow everyone else on the court for 40 minutes. Early, often and late, the Hoosiers had the best player in the building, and that's why they snapped their schnide in the conference.

Dumes played a central role in giving the Hoosiers an early cushion they would ultimately need. After Iowa gained a 16-15 lead at the 7:41 mark of the first half, it was Dumes who scored 8 points to fuel an 18-4 Hoosier run that gave the home team a 33-20 bulge at halftime. As the second half began, Dumes resurfaced to deliver a number of three-point daggers that increased Indiana's advantage to 52-34 with just under 11 minutes left in regulation. It appeared that a postgame celebration would occur in Bloomington without need for much last-minute suspense.
 
The notion of an easy victory, however, was too good to be true. Much as Indiana had almost erased a double-digit deficit in the latter stages of a 65-60 loss in Iowa City back on Jan. 3, the Hawkeyes--in search of a season series sweep--wanted to complete the comeback the Hoosiers failed to pull off in their Big Ten opener, 32 days ago in Carver-Hawkeye Arena.

Down 59-47 with 3:35 left, Todd Lickliter's offense finally began to produce the threes that need to be part of the Iowa attack. A pair of triples plus three free throws created a 9-0 Hawkeye run that chopped the Indiana lead to 59-56. With the crowd newly worried about the fate of its hardwood heroes, someone had to put a halt to the Hawks if the Hoosiers were to smash the goose-egg in the Big Ten win column.
 
Dumes, naturally, became that man. With 1:11 left, he nailed an ice-veins trifecta to push the home team's lead back to six points. Several moments later, with Iowa down 64-60 and in position to make the Hoosiers sweat out the final seconds at the foul line, Dumes stole the ball from Hawkeye guard Jeff Peterson with 23 seconds left to set up a clinching layup. He fattened Indiana's lead early, but Devan Dumes starred late to take his team over the top and into the winner's circle. When the night's work was done, Dumes--aside from his dynamic defensive play--crammed the stat sheet with 27 points on 8-of-9 shooting from the field, 5-of-5 shooting beyond the 3-point arc, and a 6-of-8 night at the charity stripe. There was nothing Dumes didn't do to help his teammates pull through, in what was clearly Indiana's best chance for a conference victory this season.
 
Now relieved of their burden, the Hoosiers can pursue the rest of Big Ten play with fresh confidence. They're not going to play postseason basketball this season, but Crean's cagers can, in a certain sense, forget about their conference record and focus only on improvement. February 4, 2009, might well be remembered as the night that Indiana basketball began to get its groove back. Devan Dumes played the triumphant tune for a team that felt a massive weight drop from its shoulders.

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