CLARKSVILLE — Indiana residents know their basketball. Last night when Daryl Pegram, a 6-foot-7 California native, missed a one-handed rebound dunk with three minutes left and his team trailing by two, a fan in the stands bellowed, “Too much hot dog.”
At the end of last night’s public scrimmage at Providence High School, a group of former local hoops standouts had too much of something else — wisdom and know-how — in a somewhat surprising 105-99 victory over Team Indiana, a squad featuring four Indiana University recruits playing in their first of seven statewide barnstorming all-star games in the next 10 days.

“Those guys play a lot, but we’ve got experience,” said Damon Bates, a former Floyd Central and Indiana University Southeast guard, whose two free throws with 12 seconds left sealed the win.

The estimated crowd of 500 saw its share of highlights, especially from highly-touted IU freshmen-to-be Bracey Wright — a McDonald’s high school All-American — and Marshall Strickland. From reverse spin moves to explosive dunks and smooth three-pointers, the 6-2 guards impressed everyone.

“They’re super athletic,” Bates said. “But this is our fourth time playing IU recruits, so it wasn’t anything new, I guess.”

Last night’s local team was led by former Silver Creek and Brescia University standout Josh Renn and by Brandon Yates, a high-rising ex-Jeffersonville and St. Joseph’s swingman. Former Silver Creek and IUS guard Mitchell Speedy also drained shots repeatedly from the perimeter.

“You can tell basketball is big here,” Wright said.

Roderick Wilmont, a 6-4 Indiana recruit from Florida, said before the game, “We’re hard to beat, us four (recruits) together.” But Team Indiana trailed 17-2 and 24-6 to start the game before outscoring the locals 24-4 to take a 30-28 lead with 8:30 left in the first 20-minute half.

“I think we kind of surprised them and ourselves a little bit,” Renn said of the locals’ great start, “because I haven’t played against that type of competition in awhile.”

Before the game, about two dozen local kids were put through a minicamp instructed by the IU recruits. Jonathan Adams, 10, of Jeffersonville and Christopher Nolan, 10, of Sellersburg talked about playing Strickland and Wright in a game of 2-on-2.

“We actually won, but they cheated us,” said Nolan, whose family has season tickets to Indiana games. “They said my foot was on the (three-point) line when actually I was like a foot behind it. And then they scored and said they won.”

“They changed the rules as we went along,” Adams added.

Ten-year-old Chris Allen and brother Patrick, 8, of Jeffersonville enjoyed the hour-and-a-half session with the recruits.

“We got to know the players more personally than you normally would,” Chris said. “They all had different personalities. We liked to watch them show off.”

The Indiana recruits enjoyed the attention.

“It’s always nice to give back to the kids, but you also get to block their shots, too,” Strickland said, laughing. “Block their shots and then let them shoot.”

No wonder Team Indiana looked tired in the late stages of the game. Nonetheless, Bates said Hoosier fans have a lot to look forward to.

“The future of IU basketball is pretty secure with those guys,” he said. “I’m the biggest IU fan around, too, so that makes me happy. The thing is, they haven’t played a second of college basketball, which is scary.”