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INDIANAPOLIS - The IUPUI basketball team built a 20-point first half lead but had to claw for dear life in the second half before knocking off Oral Roberts, 90-87 in overtime at Conseco Fieldhouse. The game had a lot of majesty coming in including the Jaguars wearing 1970's Metros replica throwback jerseys, Head Coaches Ron Hunter and Scott Sutton pacing the sidelines in their bare feet and it being the second of three contests inside the Indiana Pacers' home facility.

ORU's Warren Niles led all players with 39 points while IUPUI (12-7, 5-1 Summit) senior Robert Glenn had 25 points before fouling out. Overall, IUPUI shot 60.4 percent from the floor and 47 percent from three in the win.

"Hopefully the fans got their money's worth," IUPUI Head Coach Ron Hunter said. "It wasn't a particularly pretty win, but we held serve as we'll take it. We didn't accomplish anything tonight though. We were playing at home and we held serve, which is what we're supposed to do.

"I knew they'd make a run because that's what good teams do and I didn't really like how we handled ourselves when we got on top. We'll learn from it, continue to improve and move on."

The game lost some of its IUPUI grandeur in the second half as Oral Roberts (9-9, 4-3 Summit) erased the Jags bulge and the contest was played largely at the free throw line at both ends. After Glenn tied the game at 79 all on a pair of free throws with 1:44 left in regulation, both sides had chances to win in regulation. Glenn forced Niles into a contested 16-foot jumper with 14 seconds left that landed in senior Jon Avery's lap.

On the ensuing possession, Glenn drained the clock before turning the ball over on a drive to the hoop as time expired.

ORU took an 82-79 overtime lead when Dominique Morrison drained a right wing trey one minute in, but Avery fueled a 6-0 counterattack to give IUPUI the lead for good. The 6-foot-7 veteran assisted sophomore Christian Siakam on a layup and then cleaned the glass on a Kyron Stokes miss at the other end. Next, he scored on a slashing layup to put IUPUI on top with 2:54 left and got a steal on ORU's fourth overtime possession.

Back on offense, he dropped in a layup off a feed from John Ashworth with Glenn and Billy Pettiford both on the bench with five fouls.

"Jon Avery and Christian Siakam saved us tonight - no question," Hunter said. "They were the reason we won this basketball game. We stole that line 'next man up' from the Indianapolis Colts, so when we called on Christian, we knew he'd embrace it. He was the next man up and he made some plays in overtime for us.

"He only played four minutes tonight, but that basket he scored was huge and he was really good on defense in overtime."

Avery tied the school record, going 10-for-10 from the floor on his way to a season-high 20 points off the bench. Sophomore Alex Young finished with 15 points and junior Leroy Nobles added 10.

Morrison hit just 3-of-14 from the floor, but was 8-of-8 from line to score 16 and Michael Craion added 15 thanks to 9-of-10 shooting at the line. Kevin Ford hit all six of his free throws to close with 14 points as ORU was 34-of-38 (.895) at the charity stripe.

However, the Golden Eagles shot just 34.8 percent from the floor in defeat.

IUPUI raced out to an early 11-4 lead before ORU closed within two on three different occasions before halftime. A late 21-5 run pushed a 24-20 advantage out to 45-25 at the 1:30 mark before ORU scored the final five points of the half.

The win snapped IUPUI's three-game losing streak to ORU and pushed the Jags' record to 2-0 in overtime games this season. Hunter's team also improved to 3-3 all-time at Conseco and 4-0 in Summit League home games.

Hunter also went barefoot for the third straight year on Thursday, continuing to generate notoriety for Samaritan's Feet, a non-profit striving to raise shoes for less privileged children.

"My feet hurt, but at the end of the night, I have shoes. There are millions of kids that don't have shoes and that's their reality. This is my cause and I'm going to continue to work for this the rest of my life," Hunter said. "We're changing lives and we're going to continue to change lives.

"Again, this is much bigger than basketball. We're worried about winning and losing games, but for those kids, their feet are their transportation."

The Jags will cap its current four-game homestand on Saturday when it hosts Centenary in The Jungle on "Jaguars Blue Saturday". Fans wearing Colts gear will be admitted for free while two pair of lower level playoff tickets will be given away during the women's game later in the day.

Tipoff is slated for 2:00 p.m. with pregame coverage beginning at approximately 1:50.