Box Score

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. -- Darius Adams scored 27 points with eight assists, four rebounds and four steals, while Adrian Moss added 20 points, seven rebounds, five assists and four steals to lead the University of Indianapolis to victory over Associated Press No. 23 Tennessee, 79-64, in front of 16,701 at Thompson-Boling Arena on Monday night.

With the win, UIndy head coach Stan Gouard defeated his collegiate coach at Southern Indiana and coaching mentor Bruce Pearl.

Wilbur O'Neal added 12 points and six rebounds and DeWann Squires added 11 points and four rebounds for the Greyhounds.

The Hounds forced 25 turnovers, while only committing 10 to out-score the Volunteers, 25-8, in points off turnovers. Indianapolis also was aggressive in getting to the foul line to convert 33-of-40 free throws (.825), including 15-of-16 by Adams and 11-of-14 by Moss.

The Greyhounds shot 60 percent (12-20) in the second half to finish the game at 41.2 percent (21-51) and made 21-of-25 second half free throws.

Trailing by eight at halftime, 40-32, the Greyhounds opened the second half on a 15-0 run, 47-40, before Tennessee finally scored with a three-pointer to cut the lead to four, 47-43, with 14:10 to play.

After that basket, UIndy rattled off nine more in a row to build the lead to 15, 58-43, with 11:33 to play after a jumper by Moss.

Tennessee pulled back within nine, 63-54, with 8:58 to play, but then Adams hit two free throws, O'Neal converted an offensive rebound and Adams made two more freebies to put UIndy back up 15, 69-54.

Adams kept the lead at 15, 71-56, with two more free throws before Tennessee made its final push. The Vols closed within seven, 71-64, with 2:57 to play. The Hounds answered as Adams found Squires for a wide-open jumper as the shot clock expired for the Greyhounds first field goal in over five minutes to put them back up nine, 73-64. Indianapolis didn't allow another score and hit 6-of-8 free throws down the stretch to close out the game.

Tennessee was led by Cameron Tatum with 15 points and Tobias Harris added 10 points and 11 rebounds.

With five fouls called on UIndy in the first 2:11, the Vols jumped out to a 9-2 lead. The Hounds came back with back-to-back fast-break baskets by O'Neal and Squires to pull within three, 9-6, but Tennessee built the lead to eight, 14-6, with 14:48 to play.

The Greyhounds responded with a 10-2 run to tie the game, 16-16, on a three-pointer by Moss with 11:50 left in the half. Adams scored the other points with his own 7-0 run on a three-pointer, steal and lay-up and a pair of free throws.

UT responded with the next 10 points, 26-16, before UIndy connected on a trio of freebies to trail by seven, 26-19, with 7:29 to play in the half. The Greyhounds couldn't break through that seven-point barrier and trailed at intermission, 40-32.

The Greyhounds were able to force 12 turnovers to limit UT, which shot 48.1 percent in the half (.481) and made 11-of-19 free throws (.579). The first half featured 26 combined fouls and 34 free throws. The Greyhounds hit 12-of-15 (.800) at the charity stripe to off-set 29 percent shooting from the field (9-31).

Indianapolis opens the regular season at home on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. against IU-Northwest.

Post-Game Q&A with Coach Gouard

What did you and Coach Pearl say to each other at the end of the game?

"I talked to him earlier today and he thought our team did a great job of controlling the game. He told me he was proud of me and proud of what our team is doing compared to the last two years. That means a lot coming from my mentor. I owe a lot to him. I told him this was the toughest win I ever had because I couldn't get too excited about it because I feel like I'm beating my dad. He's like a dad to me.

"Great win for our guys going into the season. Coach is going to do a good job here. He always has and I have tremendous respect for him."

It looks like your team has improved with each game. Where are they at going into the season?

"I wanted to throw us into the fire early. A lot of people talked about our scheduling with Purdue, Southern Illinois and Tennessee in a week's span. The only way you get better is to play the best. I think we played three quality basketball teams and that will prepare us for a tough conference. I'm proud of our guys because each game we got better."

What did you say in the locker room at halftime to turn the game around?

"We didn't have to make too many defensive adjustments. We just had to control the clock because we wanted to control the game on the offensive end. My biggest thing is poise and patience on offense and all out on defense. We did a great job of rebounding and keeping those guys off the offensive boards. We played zone. I told Coach we were going to play some zone, but we don't play zone in practice. I just threw it out to the guys at Southern Illinois the other day and it worked out."

What did you think about your guards stepping up?

"We have good guards. Darius Adams is a preseason All-American and Adrian Moss is a Division I transfer from IUPUI. Our freshmen did a great job. They came into the game and didn't cough the ball up. They were poised, cut hard, reversed the basketball and did everything we asked them to. That's how you win ball games is by guys going in and sticking to the game plan to hang around and see what happens at the end of the game. That's what we did and we got a great victory tonight."

How do you build on this victory?

"Last year, we beat Valparaiso pretty good and I told our guys - don't let this be our season. Last year, it was against a mid-major basketball team. This year, we're playing a team that reached the Elite Eight last year. We can't take this and go through our next few games not ready to play. We have to approach every game the way we did tonight and build on this game. I think our guys are getting better. I think we are working harder than we did last year. We still have a long way to go in a tough GLVC. Tonight, we need to celebrate this victory. We have a long trip home and then have to get back in the gym and prepare for IU Northwest."