CEDAR CITY, Utah – The IUPUI basketball team used a stiff defensive effort to exact some revenge on Southern Utah, rolling to a 75-60 win inside the Centrum Arena on Thursday night. The Jaguars limited The Summit League’s top scorer, Davis Baker, to just one point and held the Thunderbirds to just 42 percent shooting on the evening.

Baker came in averaging better than 18 points per contest.

Senior Robert Glenn and sophomore Alex Young led IUPUI (14-7, 7-1 Summit) with 24 points each and Leroy Nobles scored 12 in the win. The victory was the Jaguars’ fourth straight, all coming in league play. SUU (5-14, 1-7 Summit) ousted the Jaguars in the opening round of The Summit League Tournament last season, powered by Baker’s 25-point night. 

“I thought defensively it was another solid game for us,” IUPUI Head Coach Ron Hunter said. “I wasn’t happy with how we finished again tonight – we’re still lacking that knockout punch. That’s a maturity thing. We got out to a big lead, but after that, we just relaxed.

“Our defense is getting it for us, but we can’t relax. We got out 20 on Oral Roberts and gave it up. Then we got out 25 against Centenary and let them back in it. When you’ve got a special team, you’ve got to get them to play a full 40 minutes and learn not to relax when you get a team down. It's not about our opponent, but it's more about valuing every possession."

Defensively, IUPUI bottled up Baker and the T-Birds from the outset and wasted little time in building its latest big lead. After the score was tied at 5-5 at the 17:16 mark, the Jaguars reeled off a 16-1 run over the next nearly 12 minutes, forcing the hosts to miss 16 straight field goal attempts. By the time SUU’s Matt Massey converted a traditional three-point play with 5:18 left before halftime, IUPUI was up 21-9.

Southern Utah cut IUPUI’s lead back to 10 on a Drew Allen three, prompting Hunter to call a quick timeout to deliver a pointed message. His troops responded with an equally quick 10-0 run, beginning with a Billy Pettiford baseline jumper, followed by back-to-back Nobles and Young threes. Senior Jon Avery capped the run with a dunk off a feed from Pettiford, making it 37-17. Massey sank a 10-footer at the final horn to make it 37-19 at the half.

The hosts were unable to cut much into the Jaguars’ lead in the second half as Young and Glenn repeatedly answered after made buckets. Ryan Brimley drilled a three with 12:08 left to make it 52-39 but IUPUI came back with a Young layup, followed by a Glenn steal and Nobles three. Southern got no closer than 14 the rest of the night.

Young hit 9-of-14 overall and 4-of-7 from three to accompany his game-high nine boards while Glenn was 8-of-11 overall and 8-of-10 at the foul line. IUPUI dominated on the glass, outrebounding Southern Utah 37-25 as Glenn and John Ashworth grabbed six each.

“Alex is a good rebounder,” Hunter said. “He came up with some big ones tonight, especially since Rob (Glenn) was in foul trouble.”

Nobles tied his career-high with six assists and Pettiford handed out five to go along with 10 points and five boards. As a team, IUPUI shot 51 percent from the floor and 7-of-15 (.429) from three. Hunter’s team also hit 86.4 percent at the free throw line and outscored the T-Birds 19-5 at the stripe.

Massey paced Southern Utah with 15 points and Brimley added 11, including three threes. Baker was 0-for-5 from the floor and scored his lone point at the foul line with under 16 seconds to play.

IUPUI will conclude its two-game road trip on Saturday when it heads to Kansas City to take on UMKC at 8:05 p.m. EST (7:05 CST). Scott McCauley (play-by-play) will call the action, beginning at approximately 7:55 from Municipal Auditorium.