TULSA, Okla. - IUPUI held Southern Utah to just 29.9 percent shooting and got 18 points from junior Austin Montgomery on its way to a 71-59 win over the Thunderbirds inside the John Q. Hammons Arena at the UMAC on Sunday night. The win was IUPUI's seventh straight quarterfinals round win in Mid-Continent Conference Tournament play.
The Jaguars (15-14) weathered many storms in the second half, including five straight points from SUU's Nurudeen Adepoju that cut a double-digit lead back to 55-52 with 8:15 remaining. From there, the Jaguars defense held the No. 5 seed scoreless over nearly four minutes to help the lead grow back to eight.
SUU (16-14) guard Justin Allen made it 60-54 at the foul line with 4:18 to play, but a Montgomery three and David Barlow 17-footer ended all doubt.
IUPUI finished the game hitting 47.2 percent from the floor, including 6-of-11 from three-point range.
'We made the plays when we had to," IUPUI head coach Ron Hunter said in his postgame press conference. "This league has some good, good coaches and I thought they made some adjustments that made us change some things. We had to go smaller, but I thought we really got a lift when we went to our bench."
Freshman Jon Avery scored nine points in 12 minutes off the bench. Senior Angelo Smith was the only other Jag in double-digits with 10 points on 4-of-9 shooting.
The Jags outrebounded Southern Utah 43-41 overall, despite the T-Birds grabbing 18 of their own misses. The two teams combined to commit just 16 turnovers in the contest.
Allen, the Mid-Con Defensive Player of the Year, capped his college career with a double-double, finishing with 21 points and 11 rebounds. Adepoju finished with 13, while Orlando Griego added 11 points and seven rebounds. SUU's First Team All Mid-Con guard Steve Barnes had just two points on 1-of-11 shooting.
"I thought we did a really good job on Barnes tonight," Hunter said. "We had a couple of different guys chasing him at different points in the game, but our length really bothered him."
IUPUI's stingy defense and a balanced offensive attack to build a 32-21 halftime lead. The Jags held Southern Utah to just 7-of-27 shooting from the floor in the opening 20 minutes and outrebounded the smaller T-Birds 22-15.
Seven Jaguars cracked the scoring column, led by Montgomery's 10 before halftime. The Mid-Con Newcomer of the Year ended the half by swishing a hotly contested three from the right wing with just four seconds left. IUPUI held Southern Utah without a field goal for nearly nine minutes as a tie score turned into a 17-8 Jaguars lead with 8:08 left in the half.
The win also assured the program's its sixth straight season of a .500 record or better.
"A lot of people wrote us off after George (Hill) got hurt," Barlow said. "Except for the people in (our) locker room, everyone counted us out."
IUPUI will face top seeded Oral Roberts on Monday night in the semifinals round of the tournament. That game will be telecast in the Indianapolis market on Comcast channel 64.
It can also be heard on Gold 95.9 FM as Greg Rakestraw calls the action. Tip time is slated for 7:00 p.m. EST (6:00 p.m. CST).
"We're going to have a lot of fun tomorrow night," Hunter said. "I think we're going to come out with a lot of energy and the pressure is on them. We've got nothing to lose.
"That's why (the coaching staff) didn't wear suits tonight - we wanted to be loose out there. We listened to some bad rap music on the bus ride over and have just been having fun since we got here."
