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TULSA, Okla. - Survive and Advance. 

That is the theme of the No. 2 seeded IUPUI Jaguars in the 2008 Summit League Conference Championship Tournament. 

“We wrote those two words—Survive and Advance—before we came to Tulsa,” head coach Ron Hunter said. “That’s all we care about. Our goal is to get to [the championship game].”

For a team boasting a high-powered offense including the Summit League Player of the Year, it was IUPUI’s defense in the waning stages that sealed a 69-65 opening round victory over the upset-minded No. 7 seed UMKC. Senior guard Austin Montgomery had a career night, posting his first-ever double-double, leading the Jags with 17 points and 10 rebounds. Montgomery also surpassed the 1,000 point mark in his college career, split between Bowling Green and IUPUI.

Summit League Player of the Year George Hill scored 16 points - 12 in the second half - and junior guard Gary Patterson added 11 points. Hill also moved into fourth place on IUPUI's all-time scoring list, surpassing Jared Lux on Saturday. For his part, he deflected credit to his teammates.

“(UMKC) did a great job of doing their scouting report,” Hill said. “Our team really stepped up and made really big plays when it came down to it, and that’s what a team is all about. When one is down others come up with big shots and I think they did exactly that.”

IUPUI (25-6) opened the game with an attacking offense that went directly through Billy Pettiford, who scored six of IUPUI’s first eight points of the opening half. UMKC counter-punched every Jags run throughout the first half.

After a frenetic opening pace, UMKC (11-21) settled into a steady offensive pattern led by Tim Blackwell’s 13 first-half points.

“Like Coach Hunter always tells us, we really can’t make any excuses,” said Patterson. “At this point in the season, everybody’s banged up, every team that’s playing right now. We know we’re hurting but we have to keep playing and give it all we’ve got.”

A 12-0 burst pushed UMKC to a 24-18 lead with six minutes remaining in the opening half. IUPUI regained composure to stop the bleeding with a 6-0 run and go on to nurse a 36-31 lead at the half.

The second half began much like the first, earmarked by offensive aggression. Hill quickly scored the Jags’ first five points of the second half, swelling the IUPUI lead to 10 with barely a minute coming off the clock. Like a heavyweight contender, the Kangaroos fought themselves off the ropes, erasing the lead and forcing a fourth tie game at 65-65 with 73 seconds remaining. But free throw shooting and timely defense led  IUPUI to victory. 

The Jags hit 84 percent at the free throw line while UMKC connected on just 8-of-17 (47.1 percent) in defeat. IUPUI was clinging to a two-point lead with 8.3 seconds left before Pettiford picked off a Reggie Hamilton pass in the closing seconds before shuffling the ball to Hill, who iced the victory at the foul line after missing a pair just six seconds earlier.

Hamilton finished with 14 points, eight rebounds and seven assists off the bench and Dane Brumagin added 16 on 7-of-12 shooting.

“One team we didn’t want to play in the first round was Kansas City because they give us match-up problems,” Hunter said. “When you have that many guys who can make shots, it was tough. But we didn’t want to make any excuses.”

The win was IUPUI's 12th in its past 13 and continued the Jags' streak of never losing a conference quarterfinals contest. It also gave the Jags a three-game sweep of the 'Roos this year.

The Jags now await the winner of No. 3 Oakland and No. 6 Western Illinois, who face off Sunday night at 7:00 p.m. EST. The Jags’ next game is Monday night. vs. Oakland or Western Illinois at 9:30 p.m.. That game will be aired on Fox Sports Indiana, DirecTV 663 and Dish Network 447.