Box Score
FARGO, N.D. - On Thursday night, IUPUI was hoping to play North Dakota State in the fifties. The Jaguars entered play as The Summit League's top defensive team while the host Bison came in the top scoring team in the league at nearly 85 points per game.
IUPUI (9-6, 2-2 Summit) got the tempo it wanted, but NDSU secured the outcome, escaping with a 55-52 victory in front of 2,524 fans at the Bison Sports Arena. NDSU (9-5, 4-1 Summit) senior forward Brett Winkelman scored the game's final seven points over 77 seconds to help the Bison come-from-behind in the last two minutes.
The 55 points were easily NDSU's lowest output of the season while IUPUI's 52 was its second lowest total of the year.
"They've got seniors, we've only got one senior and I thought that was the difference," IUPUI Head Coach Ron Hunter said. "I'm not making excuses, we should have won this game, but they made plays and we didn't.
"Now we have to go to another tough place, South Dakota State, and get a split. We have to get a 'W' down there. You really can't afford to get swept on the road if you're trying to win a championship."
Winkelman had 16 points and Summit League Preseason Player of the Year Ben Woodside led all players with 18 points in 38 minutes. IUPUI junior forward Robert Glenn scored 12 points on 6-of-8 shooting and Leroy Nobles contributed 11 points and six rebounds off the bench.
Glenn was limited to just 19 minutes of court time due to foul trouble and scored 10 of his 12 in the first half.
Nobles' putback of a Gary Patterson miss with 1:34 left put the Jaguars ahead 52-48, but IUPUI went empty from there. Winkelman converted a three-point play with 1:17 left, cutting the Jaguars' lead back to one. After Patterson missed a layup as the shot clock was winding down on IUPUI's next possession, Winkelman stuck a short jumper to put NDSU ahead by a point with 28 seconds remaining.
Out of a timeout, Patterson drove the lane and kicked out to freshman Alex Young, who misfired from three with just seven ticks to play. Winkelman capped the win with a pair of free throws with 1.4 seconds left.
Young, the tentth leading freshman scorer in the country, was limited to a season-low three points on 1-of-7 shooting and grabbed just one rebound in 21 minutes.
After neither team led by more than six in the first half, North Dakota State threatened to blow the game open early in the second half. Woodside scored eight straight points, including back-to-back threes, to make it 33-24 with 15:09 left. IUPUI's Patterson countered, sparking a 9-2 burst that pulled IUPUI within two with 12:20 to play.
Later, the Jaguars reeled off a 15-2 run to take a four-point lead at 48-40 with 6:18 left. Junior Jon Avery scored seven of his eight points during the run and sophomore John Ashworth concluded it by swishing a three from the right wing.
However seven straight NDSU points pulled the hosts back within one and the Jaguars were unable to hold off the Bison down the stretch.
NDSU hit just 37 percent overall from the field and 4-of-20 (20 percent) from three. The Jaguars weren't much better at 44.7 percent overall and 4-of-13 (30.8 percent) from deep. IUPUI controlled the glass in the second half en route to a 34-29 rebounding edge but NDSU commited just five turnovers for the game, compared to IUPUI's 10.
Patterson hit 4-of-9 shots to accumulate his nine points and Ashworth had seven points and a career-high eight rebounds in his return to the starting lineup. Junior Billy Pettiford led all players with five assists, but scored just two points. Avery, who came off the bench for the first time in over a month, used a 4-of-5 night at the foul line to close with eight points and five rebounds.
IUPUI's two-game Summit League road trip is scheduled to conclude at South Dakota State on Saturday with an 8:30 p.m. EST tipoff. Pregame coverage begins on XL 950 at 8:00 p.m. as Greg Rakestraw describes the action.
