FT. MYERS, Fla. - The IUPUI basketball team will cap its non-conference schedule on Monday night when it heads south to take on Florida Gulf Coast (3-7) inside Alico Arena (4,500) at 7:05 p.m. EST. Dave Parks (play-by-play) will call the action on 88.3 FM / The Walk, with pregame coverage beginning at approximately 6:55.
IUPUI celebrated Christmas two days earlier as the Jaguars escaped Las Vegas with a 69-68 win over San Francisco on Thursday night, thanks to a game-winner from sophomore
Sean Esposito. The Cathedral High School-grad swished a three with 5.1 seconds left and USF guard Michael Williams misfired as time expired as the Jaguars snapped a two-game skid with the victory. Despite senior
Leroy Nobles being out of the starting lineup for the first time in 60 games, the Jaguars hit a season-high 13 threes and turned the ball over just seven times in the win.
Senior
John Ashworth did his best impression of Nobles, hitting a career-best 18 points on six threes, and junior
Stephen Thomas tied his career-high with 16. Junior
Alex Young was also stellar, notching his fourth career double-double with 17 points and 10 boards in his fourth game of 40 minutes this season.
IUPUI trailed by as many as 12 in the first half and were down 11 with 7:21 left before rallying for the win. Ashworth connected for two threes in the final 90 seconds and Esposito redeemed an earlier miss with his first career game-winning bucket. Esposito had played just three minutes in IUPUI's previous five games and had just 12 points all year before scoring nine off the bench in the win.
The Jaguars hectic travel schedule included landing in Indianapolis on the early evening of the 24th before boarding a flight to Florida on Christmas Day.
IUPUI comes into Monday's game at 6-8 overall and 1-0 against FGCU. The Jaguars defeated Florida Gulf Coast 84-62 on Dec. 17, 2007 in Indianapolis behind Austin Montgomery's 21 points. Billy Pettiford added 14 points and 12 rebounds and current San Antonio Spurs star George Hill contributed 12 points, nine boards and seven assists in the win. Nobles scored 13 points on 5-of-9 shooting off the bench in that being his freshman season.
