INDIANAPOLIS - After squandering a 16-point second half lead, the IUPUI basketball team came up with some key plays in the final seconds to escape with a 67-66 win over Southern Utah on Saturday night. Junior Brandon Cameron came up with the game's biggest play by getting a steal and hitting two free throws with 9.8 seconds left to swipe the victory.
Clinging to a 66-65 lead with 15.1 seconds left after junior David Barlow sprinted through the Thunderbird defense for a layup, Southern Utah inbounded the ball under IUPUI's basket. SUU senior Rand Janes received the inbounds pass in the corner and was immediately trapped.
Janes tried to reverse the ball back to the middle, but threw his pass directly to Cameron, who was then fouled trying to drop in a layup. Cameron calmly stroked both free throws to give the Jags the lead back.
The T-Birds settled on a Henry Uhegwu jumper from the right wing on the game's final possession that came up short and was rebounded by Cameron as time expired.
IUPUI (8-6, 3-0 Mid-Con) won for the fourth time in five games and has now won five straight meetings with Southern Utah (2-13, 1-2 Mid-Con).
"We wanted to take a chance to get a steal before we fouled," IUPUI head coach Ron Hunter said of his team's last second defensive heroics. "We didn't play our best basketball tonight, but we did what we had to do.
"All that matters is that at the end of the night, we're on top of the standings and are 3-0 in league play."
Early in the second half, IUPUI opened up a 39-23 lead before the Mid-Con's best three-point shooting team began chipping away. After taking a 33-23 lead into halftime, IUPUI opened the second half with a 6-0 run on a Cameron jumper and back-to-back layups by Barlow and George Hill with 18:19 remaining.
The guests whittled the lead down little-by-little, thanks to hitting 8-of-11 (72.7 percent) from long range in the second half. Janes hit all five of his second half three-point attempts and eventually gave the T-Birds a 59-57 lead with 2:28 to play with a 22-footer from the right wing.
"We didn't do the best job of finding their shooters and they made us pay in the second half," Hunter said. "We knew they were a great shooting team and it shows we have some work to do on the defensive end."
IUPUI's defense helped them run off a 12-0 run midway through the first half after Southern Utah had jumped out to an early 18-12 lead. The Jags' defense came up with five steals in the run as Cameron capped the spurt with a three from the right corner.
Southern Utah got back within three when David Marek buried a long three, but IUPUI closed the half with a 9-2 burst to take a 10-point lead at halftime.
Barlow led IUPUI with a career-high 18 points on 7-of-10 shooting while Hill added 17. Cameron and Angelo Smith both had big nights off the bench.
Cameron had 13 points and two steals while Smith had six points and 12 rebounds (eight offensive) in 27 minutes work.
"Angelo (Smith) was an absolute monster tonight on the glass," Hunter said. "That's what we really need out of him. When he gives us energy and production like that, we're a tough basketball team."
Rand Janes led all scorers with 21 points, thanks to a 6-of-9 shooting night from three-point range. His brother, Nate, added 13 points and six rebounds while Uhegwu finished with 12.
Southern Utah had an efficient shooting night, hitting 48.9 percent from the floor, 55.6 percent from three-point range and drilling 10-of-11 at the charity stripe.
IUPUI shot just 42.9 percent from the field.
The Jags will return to action on Thursday night when they travel to UMKC. Game time is slated for 7:00 p.m. CST (8:00 p.m. EST) from Municipal Auditorium in Kansas City.
