INDIANAPOLIS - Sophomore Gary Patterson scored a career-high 30 points as IUPUI rolled past Western Illinois, 69-47 on Saturday night in The Jungle. The win brought the Jaguars back to .500 both overall and in Mid-Continent Conference play, while it was also IUPUI's 17th consecutive win over Western Illinois, dating back to 2000.
Patterson buried WIU (6-20, 2-9 Mid-Con) by hitting 11-of-17 overall and 6-of-11 from three-point range to accompany his game-high four assists. As a team, IUPUI hit 10-of-18 (55.6 percent) from long distance in the win, as senior David Barlow added three triples of his own.
"Gary and David were absolutely awesome tonight," IUPUI head coach Ron Hunter said. "It's fun to watch them when they play together like that. They handled the pressure and hit open shots.
"When they both play like that, we're really hard to beat."
Barlow finished with 17 points, five rebounds and three assists in 38 minutes.
The duo helped stake IUPUI (12-12, 5-5 Mid-Con) to an early 12-2 lead in the game's opening six minutes. Patterson opened the scoring with a 14-footer, while Barlow followed shortly thereafter with a three. Junior Austin Montgomery added a three of his own off a kick out pass from Angelo Smith to make it 9-2 before the first media timeout.
After WIU's David Jackson was whistled for his second foul of the game, an offensive infraction 35 feet away from the basket, Barlow made it 12-2 by swishing his second three.
After scoring just four points over nearly 13 minutes to start the game, WIU used a 9-0 run to close within three at 16-13 with 5:04 left in the half. Jackson closed the run with a rainbow three from the left wing. The Jags responded with eight straight points and took a 29-19 lead to the locker room.
WIU's Lorenzo Taylor opened the second half with a short jumper, but the Jags scored the game's next five points and led by double-digits the rest of the night.
Patterson's 30 points were the most by an IUPUI player against a Division I opponent since Akeem Clark scored 32 versus Southern Utah on Feb. 5, 2005. His previous career-high was 17 at Valparaiso earlier this season.
Montgomery added seven points and eight rebounds, while freshman Billy Pettiford scored eight. Smith grabbed nine rebounds and rejected three shots in the middle of the IUPUI defense.
Defensively, the 47 points allowed were the fewest since IUPUI's season-opening 86-47 win over Alabama A&M in the BCA Classic. The Jags held Western to just 34.9 percent shooting from the floor and forced 15 turnovers in the win. No WIU player reached double-figures in the scoring column as a trio of Leathernecks finished with eight points, including Jackson. Jackson finished the night two points shy of joining WIU's 1,000 point club.
He was limited to just 3-of-7 shooting in 18 minutes before fouling out.
"I thought we did a really good job on (David) Jackson and finding (Troy) Okeson. To be honest, I thought we really stepped up at the defensive end of the floor this weekend," Hunter said. "We still did a good job of taking care of the glass, and I thought we made them take some difficult shots.
"A lot of people counted us out, but that group of guys in the locker room downstairs want to prove that they can be in the hunt come March."
IUPUI outrebounded WIU 36-24 and outscored the guests at the free throw line, 17-12.
The Jags will now hit the road for a pair of Mid-Con games next week, beginning with a Thursday trip to Southern Utah. Tip time from Cedar City is slated for 9:00 p.m. ET, with pregame coverage on Gold 95.9 FM beginning at 8:30. Southern Utah won the previous meeting between the two teams in Indianapolis, 56-53 on Jan. 20.
