STATE COLLEGE, Pa. (AP) -- Indiana ran its motion offense to perfection Saturday night, setting up layups, dunks and free throws for the Hoosiers' big men.

Even Bob Knight had to admit: His overachieving Hoosiers are playing just the way he likes.

"Occasionally, occasionally," he said. "Let's don't ... go overboard here."

	Indiana's Jeffrey Newton denies Penn State's Tyler Smith a rebound on Saturday.

Kirk Haston scored a career-high 28 points and outplayed Jarrett Stephens, the Big Ten's top scorer, as the Hoosiers (No. 11 ESPN/USA Today, No. 10 AP) defeated Penn State 85-78 for its sixth straight victory.

Whatever Knight thinks, Penn State coach Jerry Dunn has made up his mind about these Hoosiers (12-1, 2-0 Big Ten).

"They're one of the better Indiana teams I've seen," Dunn said. "They do a very good job in terms of passing and recognition."

Haston, with Larry Richardson, made a series of easy baskets to protect Indiana's narrow lead down the stretch. Haston also added 13 rebounds.

"Haston's whole ability to play centers on his anticipating what (is) happening out there," Knight said. "Tonight may have been as good as he's done that all year. We had to have as good a game as Haston's ever had to win tonight."

A.J. Guyton had 15 points and Richardson 11 for Indiana, which shot 57 percent in defeating the Lions a sixth straight time. Michael Lewis had eight assists and Jeffrey Newton had five of Indiana's 14 blocks.

"It was frustrating, just because the shots that I thought were going to be easy shots weren't," Stephens said.

Other than a brief second-half spurt, Stephens, averaging 20.2 points, never hurt Indiana. While he grabbed 14 rebounds, he finished with only 14 points.

"To expect Jarrett Stephens to play well night-in, night-out -- he's going to have his off-games," Dunn said.

Joe Crispin led Penn State (8-5, 0-2) with 24 points and went 11-of-11 from the foul line. Titus Ivory added 19, including two 3s with four minutes left to keep Penn State within 76-70, but they couldn't get closer than five in the second half.

"They just came right back at us," said Knight, who kept his players off-limits to the media after the game. "Their guards did a really good job of penetrating against us and creating situations."

Indiana went ahead 48-36 at the start of the second half -- with lots of help from the Lions, who missed their first four shots and had four turnovers in the first six minutes.

Indiana kept running its usual methodical offense: Guyton drove for a basket, Haston found a wide-open Newton for a dunk and Newton's 10-footer rattled in and the Hoosiers had their biggest lead of the game.

Then Stephens showed up -- briefly. After scoring only seven points in the first half, Stephens took a pass from Joe Crispin inside for one basket, then went up strong for a three-point play. Crispin's fall-away 15-footer and coast-to-coast layup pulled the Lions within five points.

Over the next two minutes, Jon Crispin, Joe's brother, kept it close with two 3s and a drive past Michael Lewis.

But Indiana countered time and again with in-the-paint finesse.

"The things that hurt us most was when we didn't keep the ball in front of us," Dunn said. "We just didn't make rotations and they got some easy buckets. I think we allowed the ball inside too easily."