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INDIANAPOLIS - Leading by a point with under eight minutes to play, a lethargic IUPUI bunch turned to an unexpected hero for a late burst on its way to a 59-54 win over Southern Utah on Friday night. Sophomore
John Ashworth, who came in hitting just 20 percent from three-point range, swished a contested trey from the right wing to push the IUPUI lead to 46-42 with 7:32 left.
At the other end, the 6-foot-3 guard blocked a John Clifford reverse and threw the rebound ahead to
Jon Avery, who dropped in a deuce from point blank range to make it 48-42. The Thunderbirds got within three at 53-50 with 2:07 left, but Ashworth swished his second three of the game on the ensuing possesion to help seal the victory.
The win improved IUPUI to 9-5 overall and 2-1 in Summit League play. The visiting T-Birds dropped to 4-11 and 2-2 in league play.
"He's a really tough kid and he made plays for us tonight," IUPUI Head Coach
Ron Hunter said of Ashworth's second half. "We challenged them during a timeout and he was the one that responded. He made two really big shots when we needed them."
Ashworth finished with eight points, all in the second half, after coming off the bench for the first time in nearly a month. The two threes were his only field goal attempts of the contest.
Freshman
Alex Young led IUPUI with 14 points, all in the first half, and
Robert Glenn and
Leroy Nobles added 13 each. Young scored IUPUI's first 10 points of the game and he and Glenn combined to score the team's first 18 of the contest. No other Jaguar scored until
Gary Patterson sank a free throw with 6:25 left before halftime.
Glenn also finished with a team-high eight rebounds and three blocked shots but the Jags were outrebounded 33-29.
SUU's Davis Baker led all players with 17 points. Jake Nielson added 12 points and five rebounds off the bench and Clifford narrowly missed a double-double with 10 points and nine rebounds. However Baker fouled out with over five minutes to play and Clifford was later disqualified in the waning seconds.
IUPUI outscored SUU 13-9 at the free throw line.
After falling behind 8-2 early, IUPUI needed a late 10-0 first half run to finally pull ahead. Nobles began the run by swishing a three from the left baseline corner and
Billy Pettiford completed it with a layup off a nifty Patterson feed. The Jaguars pushed the lead to 34-25 by halftime, thanks to an Avery layup off a Nobles lob entry.
Glenn dropped in an easy layup with 17:15 left to make it 36-25 but the T-Birds countered with a 14-1 run to take a 39-37 lead with 11:48 left.
Offensively, IUPUI hit just 32 percent of its field goals in the second half and finished the game hitting 41 percent. Southern Utah made 46.7 percent, but just 3-of-11 (27.3 percent) from three-point range.
The Jags were worse though, hitting 4-of-17 (23.5 percent). Last year, Patterson made 11 threes against Southern Utah in scoring a career-high 37 points. On Friday, the 5-foot-10 sharpshooter went 0-of-8 from the floor and finished with three points, all from the foul line in 39 minutes.
"We need to get Gary back to hitting shots," Hunter said. "I think some rest will be good for him, but he's just in a funk right now. He'll come out of it, good shooters always do. All he can do is keep shooting."
IUPUI will take the weekend off before returning to practice to prepare for its annual trip to North and South Dakota. The trip will begin at North Dakota State on Thursday when the Jaguars will take on the Bison at 7 p.m. CST (8 EST). Pregame coverage begins at 7:30 on XL 950 and that contest can also be seen as part of the IUPUI LIVE! package on IUPUIJags.com.
