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INDIANAPOLIS – The IUPUI basketball team sandwiched a pair of power surges around a lull and rode Robert Glenn’s coattails down the stretch in an 86-74 win over North Dakota State inside the Jungle on Saturday night. Glenn scored 14 of IUPUI’s final 21 points and finished the night with a game-high 33, just four shy of his career-high.

“I made Rob mad in the first half and he came out and took it out on them in the second half,” IUPUI Head Coach Ron Hunter said. “If that’s the case, I’m just going to do something to make him mad every game. I didn’t think he played that tough the other night, and we let him know it. Tonight, I thought he really played a tough game inside.

“He was banging with their bigs, getting rebounds and holding his ground. When he plays like that, he can be the best player in our league.”

IUPUI (7-2, 2-0 Summit) built a 62-47 second half lead, capped by a Jon Avery two-handed dunk in transition with 12:36 left, but the Bison used the three-point shot to crawl back in the game. An 18-3 NDSU (3-4, 1-1 Summit) run over the next five-plus minutes tied the score at 65 all with 6:48 to play.

Mike Felt made three threes during the run as IUPUI went six minutes between field goals. After NDSU tied the game though, Glenn immediately took over on the next possession.

Glenn came to the other end and put the Jags back on top to stay with a twisting layup that he converted into a three-point play after drawing a foul from Jordan Aaberg. Glenn scored nine of IUPUI’s next 12 points as the Jaguars reeled off a 12-2 run and held NDSU without a field goal until Eric Carlson got free for a layup with 2:57 left.

By that time, IUPUI had already pushed its lead back out to eight.

Glenn hit 15 straight free throws before finally missing his final attempt of the night, finishing 15-of-16 at the line. As a team, the Jags hit 74.2 percent and outscored the Bison 23-10 at the charity stripe.

“We wanted to attack them on the inside because that’s where we thought we had the advantage. We either wanted to finish at the rim or get to the foul line,” Hunter said. “We’re good when we’re attacking the rim because that really opens the game up for our shooters.”

The shooters made six first half threes (in 16 attempts), but were just 1-of-4 in the second.

Sophomore Alex Young led the way, scoring 16 of his 23 before intermission. The 6-foot-6 lefty scored eight straight points during one stretch as the Jags pushed their lead from three to nine in the process. Late in the half, NDSU’s Josh Vaughan cut the IUPUI lead to 40-34 by swishing a high arcing three from the top of the key with nine seconds left, but after a timeout, Young banked in a 28-footer as time expired to make it 43-34 at the break.

Hunter’s team built the first half lead by forcing 12 NDSU turnovers – twice as many as the Jags committed in the first 20 minutes.

“We played with a high defensive intensity tonight. When the offense isn’t necessarily working, you can always fall back on your defense,” Hunter said. “Tonight, I liked what we got from our press. We made them uncomfortable and it led to some easy baskets for us.”

Young continued to energize the Jags early in the second half, including a pair of thunderous one-handed dunks in transition. The top scoring freshman in The Summit a year ago hit 4-of-9 from three and added four steals in 32 minutes in the win. Glenn grabbed a team-high eight rebounds and junior Leroy Nobles also finished in double-digits with 12 points. IUPUI had a season-low eight turnovers and just two in the second half, helping offset a 46 percent shooting night.

Eric Carlson led four Bison in double-digits with 20 points and nine rebounds and Michael Tveidt chipped in 12 points on 5-of-10 shooting to finish with 12. Vaughan and freshman Nate Zastrow scored 11 each and combined with Felt to hit 8-of-16 from three.

IUPUI will now return to non-conference play on Wednesday when it travels to South Bend to take on Notre Dame for just the second time ever. Tipoff is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. with live audio beginning at approximately 7:15. Scott McCauley (play-by-play) will call the action.