Mike Conley made all his Indiana All-Star teammates look good, even without Mr. Basketball Greg Oden in the lineup.

With the 7-foot Greg Oden watching from the bench, his right wrist in a cast from recent surgery, DeJovaun Sawyer-Davis scored 14 points and Conley had 14 assists as Indiana posted a 94-66 win over Kentucky to sweep the annual two-game series.
"I was trying to be a leader," Conley said. "Without Greg down low, we lost a big inside presence and a lot of offensive scoring, so I felt like I had to get everybody involved and comfortable in their position, and I felt like I did that."

Overshadowed by Greg Oden on Lawrence North's three straight Indiana Class 4A championship teams, Conley reinforced his credentials with 11 points, six rebounds and two steals, while controlling the tempo of the game whenever he was on the court. He was named the game's Most Valuable Player/

"When Mike is running the show and has the ball in his hands and DeJovaun is on the floor, we just have stability," Indiana coach Chris Benedict said. "They do a tremendous job of communicating with all of the other players. They kept everybody in tune to what was going on, and just got us in a situation where we could do the things and play to our strengths and try to stay away from our weaknesses."

The 6-1 Conley, who will remain Greg Oden's teammate next season at Ohio State, had assists on six of Indiana's first 10 baskets, including back-to-back 3-pointers by Cole Holmstron and Vaughn Duggins for a 22-11 lead. With Conley on the bench, Kentucky closed to within 28-27 on a 3-pointer by Joshua Mack, but Conley returned and led a 22-4 run that put the game out of reach.

"I'm really not impressed," Greg Oden said. "I know he can do it whenever he wants to, even when I'm out there on the floor. Sometimes I'm mad at him when he doesn't take over."

Conley hit a 3-pointer and a reverse layup and assisted on two other baskets by Sawyer-Davis during that decisive run. Two free throws by Sawyer-Davis with 10 seconds left in the first half gave Indiana a 43-31 lead at the break.

The Hoosiers completed their streak by scoring the first seven points of the second half, including a fast-break layup by Conley and a 3-pointer by Andrew Warren off another assist by Conley. Kentucky could get no closer than 16 points.

Indiana built the lead to 26 points midway through the period and 28 in the final seconds.

"It was pretty obvious we didn't shoot well," Kentucky coach Tim Riley said of his team's 34 percent effort. "We had to shoot it really, really well to have any kind of hope and prayer against these guys."

Brandon Hopf of Forest Park did not score for Indiana, going 0-for-4 from the field.

Indiana improved its series lead to 77-41.

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