NASHVILLE, Tenn. - The IUPUI men's basketball team had a couple of offensive lapses, allowing Vanderbilt to escape with a 53-45 win at Memorial Gym on Thursday night. IUPUI junior Matt Burks led all scorers with 15 points on a 5-of-12 shooting night from beyond the arc.
"We outplayed them for 36 minutes of the game tonight," IUPUI Head Coach Ron Hunter said. "We thought we could control the tempo of the game and I think our kids did a great job.
"We had a good game plan going in. We put in some wrinkles and I don't think there is a team in our conference that can beat us when we play like we did tonight."
Trailing 50-37 with 3:37 to play, IUPUI made things interesting by reeling off an 8-0 run over the next 2:29.
Burks hit a trey from the left baseline corner off a feed from David Barlow with 2:49 left to start the rally. On Vandy's next possession, Julian Terrell had a pass picked off by George Hill, who raced the other way and spun a layup off the glass, making it 50-42.
After a 30-second timeout, Hill came up with another steal and Brandon Cole buried a three from the right corner with 57.9 seconds left, setting the score at 50-45.
IUPUI (5-6) opted to allow Vanderbilt (8-1) to run the clock, but Shan Foster made the plan backfire when he hoisted a challenged three from the right wing with the shot clock winding down and had it rattle home to set the final margin.
Burks misfired on IUPUI's final possession and Hunter's troops let Mario Moore run out the clock to end the game.
Both teams struggled from the floor with IUPUI hitting 36.7 percent and Vandy hitting 37.5 percent. The two teams combined to attempt just eight free throws in the lightly whistled contest.
The only category that was heavily slanted was the battle of the boards, which Vandy won easily, 42-27. The Commodores grabbed 17 offensive rebounds and outscored IUPUI 16-5 on second chance points.
"They have SEC size, but we played hard and gave them a good run," Hunter said. "They're a very physical team and they did a good job of getting position and beating us to the ball."
Despite being outmanned physically, IUPUI landed the first blow, racing out to an early 13-5 advantage. Senior Michal Vavrek buried a three on IUPUI's opening possession and Cole and Burks followed with their own shortly thereafter to give the Jags the early edge. Unfortunately, IUPUI went without a field goal for nearly eight minutes, allowing Vandy to pull out to a 15-13 lead.
Junior Brandon Cameron stopped the bleeding with a short pull-up as the shot clock expired with 5:42 remaining in the half to tie the score at 15 all. The teams traded baskets with Angelo Smith tying the score at 22-22 with 1:30 remaining in the half when he stroked a 14-footer from the right side.
Vanderbilt reeled off a 7-0 run to close the half to take a 29-22 lead to the locker room. Moore started the flurry with a three and Terrell then came up with a steal. After Derrick Byars made it five straight on a pull-up jumper, Hill turned the ball over with a charging violation.
Indianapolis Chatard-product Dan Cage closed the half by floating a teardrop down the lane as time expired.
Foster finished the game as Vandy's lone player in double-digits with 12 points. Terrell grabbed 12 rebounds, half coming off the offensive glass.
Cole had 10 points and seven rebounds for IUPUI, while Hill was held to just six points and five rebounds. The 6-foot-2 guard ranked among the nation's leaders in free throw attempts per game, but was unable to get to the line the entire night.
IUPUI will take a few days off to enjoy the Christmas holiday before returning to practice on Dec. 26th. The Jaguars will host Chicago State in The Jungle on Dec. 30, with tip time slated for 7:00 p.m..
