Gordon Strong In Debut For No. 8 Indiana

Eric Gordon had the best debut for an Indiana player in 37 years and the highly recruited guard even impressed himself. <br/><br/>``I thought I played pretty good,'' Gordon said after scoring 33

Tuesday, November 13th 2007, 7:20 am

By: News On 6

Eric Gordon had the best debut for an Indiana player in 37 years and the highly recruited guard even impressed himself.

``I thought I played pretty good,'' Gordon said after scoring 33 points in the eighth-ranked Hoosiers' 99-79 victory over Chattanooga on Monday night. ``I just tried to step up in different situations and so did a lot of other players on our team.''

None as much as Gordon who was 9-of-15 from the field, including 7-of-11 on 3-pointers, and had six rebounds, four assists. It was the most points scored by a player in his first game at Indiana since George McGinnis had 26 against Eastern Michigan on Dec. 1, 1970.

``If he plays like he did tonight, we'll be OK,'' coach Kelvin Sampson said, drawing laughter. ``He's going to play hard every night, and the thing I like is that he practices at the same pace every day. When I was at Michigan State, Magic Johnson was like that. There's a reason those guys are good.''

In other games involving ranked teams on Monday, it was: No. 2 UCLA 83, Youngstown State 52; No. 10 Marquette 66, Utah Valley 55; No. 11 Oregon 97, Western Michigan 88; No. 13 Duke 86, New Mexico State 61; and No. 16 Texas 58, Texas-San Antonio 37.

Gordon, a Mr. Basketball in Indiana, originally committed to play at Illinois, changed his mind and became a Hoosier. The Indiana fans had been talking about his first game for months and Gordon lived up to the billing, adding a solid defensive effort to the record point total.

``This is not an easy atmosphere for anyone to come in, especially on Eric Gordon freshman night,'' Mocs coach John Shulman said. ``They should have given out posters. I'd get mine autographed. He was terrific. I had no answer.''

Point guard Armon Bassett scored 20 points for the Hoosiers (1-0), while senior forward D.J. White finished with 17.

Kevin Bridgewaters had 14 points for Chattanooga (1-1), which led 50-46 at halftime.

Gordon, trailing on a breakaway, had a highlight-reel one-handed dunk that brought the crowd to its feet early in the second half.

``It's just two points,'' Gordon said. ``But you love to get the crowd going.''

No. 2 UCLA 83, Youngstown St. 52

Kevin Love scored 21 points and Lorenzo Mata-Real added 14 points and 14 rebounds for the Bruins (2-0), who extended their home winning streak to 22 games with the win in the first round of the CBE Classic.

UCLA will play Division II Cal State-San Bernardino, which beat Weber State 71-59, in Tuesday's second round. The winner advances to the semifinals on Nov. 19 in Kansas City.

John Barber scored 12 points for Youngstown State (0-1), which had 23 turnovers.

No. 10 Marquette 66, Utah Valley 55

Dominic James scored 13 points, including the 1,000th of his career, for the Golden Eagles (2-0), who trailed at halftime. James hit a 3-pointer with 4:20 to play that gave Marquette a 57-50 lead.

Ryan Toolson was 5-for-9 from 3-point range and scored 20 points for Utah Valley (0-2).

No. 11 Oregon 97, W. Michigan 88

Senior forward Malik Hairston scored a career-high 29 points and Joevan Catron recorded a career-high 17 points and 10 rebounds for the Ducks (3-0) in the World Vision Invitational. Hairston was 9-of-11 from the field as Oregon ran its regular-season nonconfernce winning streak to 15 games.

David Kool had 24 points to lead the Broncos (1-2), who scored 58 points in the second half in rallying from a 16-point halftime deficit.

No. 13 Duke 86, New Mexico St. 61

Jon Scheyer scored 22 points for the Blue Devils (2-0), who shot 47 percent, forced 26 turnovers and built a 31-point lead in their second straight rout of an outmanned nonconference opponent.

Justin Hawkins had 16 points and 11 rebounds for the Aggies (0-2).

No. 16 Texas 58, Texas-San Antonio 37

D.J. Augustin scored 19 points and the Longhorns (1-0) used some stout second-half defense to pull away. Texas scored its fewest points in a season-opening win since 1982.

Devin Gibson scored 13 points for the Roadrunners (1-1), who scored 18 points in the second half and shot 27 percent for the game.