DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. - The IUPUI basketball team roared out to an early 13-point lead against Auburn on Saturday night at the third annual Glenn Wilkes Classic but couldn't sustain the effort, falling 80-65 to the Southeastern Conference foe. DeWayne Reed led Auburn (2-2) with a career-high 24 points and Frankie Sullivan added 20 on 8-of-10 shooting.
Senior
Robert Glenn paced IUPUI (3-1) with 21 points and seven rebounds and
Jon Avery chipped in a season-high 16 points off the bench. The loss was IUPUI's first of the season, marking the program's best start since 2003.
"We just ran out of gas. That's no excuse, we could've won this game," IUPUI Head Coach
Ron Hunter said. "We got sloppy at key points in the game and didn't always execute our game plan. Now we've got to bounce back and get out of here with two wins."
IUPUI built a 20-7 lead just 10 minutes into the game, powered by a 13-0 run that broke an early 7-7 tie. Avery scored six points during the run including back-to-back buckets in close. However, Auburn put together a 26-4 run spanning the two halves over the next eight minutes. Leading 41-35 at halftime, the Tigers stretched the edge out to 16 with 16:51 to play. Hunter's team got within nine twice in the final 12 minutes, but never got it closer than a three-possession game.
Reed spurred on the run, scoring 10 of his 16 first half points during the decisive rally. He capped the first half by driving the length of the court and flipping in a layup while drawing a third personal foul against Glenn. He then opened the second half by assisting on threes from Sullivan and Earnest Ross on the Tigers' first two offensive trips after halftime.
Reed hit 7-of-8 at the foul line and also handed out four assists on the evening as Auburn's backcourt trio of he, Sullivan and Ross combined to score 60 of the team's 80 points. Brendon Knox chipped in 10 points off the bench with eight coming in succession midway through the second half.
Glenn hit 7-of-12 shots and had a pair of steals in 31 minutes and Avery sank 7-of-10 off the bench. The rest of the team combined to hit just 9-of-27 (33.3 percent) from the floor. Auburn outshot IUPUI 55 percent to 47 percent and outscored the Jags 24-12 off turnovers.
"We didn't always play our game tonight. We got a little disorganized at times and didn't always play the most composed basketball," Hunter said. "Credit Auburn - they're a BCS team and they did what they needed to do to win tonight. They were the hungrier basketball team."
The loss dropped IUPUI to 0-5 all-time against SEC foes.
IUPUI will conclude play at the Glenn Wilkes Classic by taking on Georgia State on Sunday at 1:15 p.m.. Sunday's game will be the first-ever meeting between the two schools. That contest can be heard on IUPUIJags.com with Scott McCauley calling the action from courtside inside the Ocean Center. Pregame coverage will begin at approximately 1:00 p.m..
