OXFORD, Ohio – The high powered trio of
Leroy Nobles,
Alex Young and
Stephen Thomas combined to score 55 of IUPUI’s 63 as the Jaguars closed out the O’Reilly Auto Parts CBE Classic with a 63-46 win over Green Bay at Millett Hall on Monday night. Nobles broke out of a recent slump and scored 14 of his game-high 21 in the second half after Thomas had scored the Jaguars’ first 13 of the game.
The Dayton-transfer finished with a career-high 16 and Young tallied 18 to go along with a game-high seven caroms.
“Coach Hunter puts a lot of pressure on us to carry the load offensively,” Thomas said. “Tonight was really the first time we’ve all gotten going. For me, it felt good to get in a rhythm and knock down some shots early.”
It was all Thomas early for the Jaguars as the 6-foot guard scored IUPUI’s first 13 points less than six minutes in. His second trifecta came just 2:30 into the game and pushed the Jags’ lead to 8-0, forcing a Green Bay (2-3) timeout. Out of the timeout, Green Bay finally scored on a Steve Baker layup, but Thomas stayed hot with an old fashioned three-point play on the right baseline to make it 11-2.
Two trips later, he made it 13-2 on a step back 15 footer at the 14:18 mark.
“Steph made it easier on everyone by getting us out to a good start,” Hunter said. “He’s a tough matchup because he can create for his teammates or call his own number and score it. We don’t have to run plays for him because he can make plays within our offense.”
The lead grew as high as 15 in the first half on a Nobles backdoor layup, but Green Bay was able to close within 21-13 at the 3:44 mark on a Bryquis Perine three. However, IUPUI (2-3) scored the final five points of the half including
Donovan Gibbs feeding Young in transition for an easy layup with 50.7 seconds left to cap the scoring at 29-15.
IUPUI continued to dictate the pace in the second half and never let the Phoenix closer than 11.
A quick 6-0 Green Bay burst cut it to 41-30 with 12:08 left, but IUPUI scored the next four. The first came on a pair of Nobles free throws with the next two coming on an impressive Mitchell Patton putback with 10:42 to play. Young leaked out on a fast break, but missed the contested finish, however, the 6-foot-9 freshman got rewarded for running the floor and dropped in the rebound.
Nobles landed the daggers down the stretch including a 13-foot floater on a broken play with 6:18 left and a three on the next possession off an assist from
John Ashworth. The final blow came with 3:44 left when Nobles rebounded a missed Young free throw and converted it into a three-point play, despite the bench yelling for him to pull the ball out.
“Leroy’s such an emotional player that you want him to channel that energy into productivity,” IUPUI Head Coach
Ron Hunter said. “He’d been struggling with his shot, but he did a real nice job of getting himself going with a couple layups tonight. That kind of opened up the game for him and got him free for some open looks.
“When he gets going like that, he’s hard to stop and we’re hard to stop overall.”
Nobles hit 7-of-11 from the floor and all five of his free throw attempts in the win. Young hit 7-of-17 overall while Thomas was 6-of-12 overall and 3-of-5 from three. Thomas also had four boards and two steals and earned All-Tournament Team honors.
IUPUI shot 44 percent overall and held Green Bay to just 32.7 percent shooting. Green Bay made just 6-of-30 (20 percent) from the floor in the first half and 1-of-11 from three for the game.
“We did a good job of bottling them up offensively,” Hunter said. “They helped us by missing some easy shots, but I think our length and athleticism on the perimeter really bothered their guards. We cut off their penetration and did a good job of keeping them in front of us.”
Rahmon Fletcher was the lone Green Bay player to reach double-digits as the senior guard closed with 16 on 8-of-10 shooting. However, he was limited to just 26 minutes after picking up two early fouls in the first half. Baker added six points, six boards and four assists in the loss.
The win improved IUPUI to 1-1 all-time officially against the Phoenix. A previous win over Green Bay was later vacated by the NCAA.
IUPUI will return to action on Saturday, Nov. 27 when it heads west on I-70 to take on Saint Louis in non-league action at 2:00 p.m.. Pregame coverage with Scott McCauley (play-by-play) will begin on 88.3 FM / The Walk at approximately 1:50 p.m..
