OXFORD, Ohio – IUPUI’s upset bid of No. 25 San Diego State came to a screeching halt as the Aztecs used a 15-0 run to fend off the Jaguars in a 61-46 win in the Oxford Subregional of the O’Reilly Auto Parts CBE Classic on Sunday night. SDSU’s Kawhi Leonard finished with 20 points, including four threes, and 10 rebounds in the win. Billy White added 14 on 7-of-11 shooting for the victors.
IUPUI got 12 points each from junior
Alex Young and freshman center Mitchell Patton, who made his first collegiate start on Sunday. Junior
Stephen Thomas added nine points on 4-of-6 shooting in his return to the starting lineup.
“They’re a good basketball team,” IUPUI Head Coach
Ron Hunter said. “We tried to control the tempo and take them out of their game. We wanted them to have to play deliberate and methodical like us. They like to get out in transition and get easy baskets, so we tried to limit that. But when you make 17 turnovers though, you’re not going to beat a lot of people, especially a team like that.
“This is the second time we’ve had a lead at halftime and not been able to finish the deal though. That’s our inexperience showing.”
IUPUI (1-3) led 36-33 with 13:18 left after Young scored on a tough reverse, but the offense dried up from there. SDSU (4-0) scored the game’s next 15 points, including back-to-back threes from James Rahon and Leonard to give the Aztecs the lead for good. By the time Young tipped in a
Leroy Nobles miss to stop the run, IUPUI trailed 48-38 with 8:58 to play.
Patton cut the lead back to eight on a nifty up-and-under move on the next trip, but SDSU scored the game’s next 10 points to end any suspense. After going over 71 straight minutes without a three-point field goal, San Diego State made seven in the second half alone on Sunday, finishing hitting 7-of-17 (41.2 percent).
“I don’t think they’re a bad three-point shooting team, they just don’t rely on it,” Hunter said. “Our goal was to try to get them to shoot 20 or 25 threes today and they just didn’t get there. I liked our chances better if we could’ve gotten them to try and rely on that a little bit more.”
IUPUI finished the game hitting 41.7 percent from the field and 5-of-13 (38.5 percent) from three. The Jaguars were outrebounded 27-18 overall and outscored 15-6 on second chance points. Young finished the game with a team-high five boards and three steals in 36 minutes work. No other Jaguar grabbed more than three rebounds in the loss.
The Jaguars struck the game’s first blow, vaulting out to an early 11-4 lead on threes from Young and Thomas less than five minutes in. Each time SDSU pulled even or took the lead, the Jaguars seemingly had an answer in the first half.
After a 6-0 burst tied the game at 12 all at the 9:55 mark, Thomas responded with a floater and Nobles hit a pair of free throws on the next possession to make it a four-point lead. After SDSU pulled even, Patton arced in his first career trey to put the Jags back on top.
After falling behind 20-19 on Billy White’s tip-in of his own miss, IUPUI scored the final four points of the half to take a 23-20 lead to the break.
Sunday’s loss dropped IUPUI to 0-9 all-time against ranked opponents at the Division I level and 0-2 so far on the season.
IUPUI will conclude CBE Classic play on Monday when it takes on Green Bay at 4:30 p.m. at Millett Hall in Oxford. Scott McCauley (play-by-play) will begin pregame coverage on 88.3 FM at approximately 4:20 p.m..
