Indiana trounced Houston 113-87 today, putting an end to a verbal sparring match. Perhaps in an effort to bolster his overmatched team's confidence, Houston coach Bob has been all over the paper and evening news predicting an easy victory. Just before gametime he said, "Records don't mean anything coming into a game like this. We all know who's the better team, and we're going to show it." These words turned out to be true, but not in the sense he had meant them.

Indiana coach Coach Hitch refused to trade jabs before the game, instead leaving the job to his superior team. Afterwards, he thought Bob's strategy curious. "No offense, but if you've got the crummy team and go around saying stuff like that, you just look like an idiot. Did he think we would actually believe that garbage? Maybe he should have invested his time coming up with a game plan rather than a press conference speech."

Indiana was led by Cato (25 points, 3 assists, a steal), Bowles (13 points, 9 boards, 1 assists, a steal, a block), Owens (18 points). Houston was led by Conner (26 points), James (16 points, 5 boards, 1 assists), Howard (12 points, 1 assists, a steal, a block).

Indiana stand at 7-4 with this win. They hold at #3 in the Central and improve to #6 overall in the Eastern Conference. Houston stand at 8-4 and 5-1 at home after this defeat. They stay at #1 in the Southwest and stay at #2 overall in the Western Conference.

box score Indiana* roster Houston roster