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INDIANAPOLIS – IUPUI manhandled The Summit League’s top defensive team on Thursday night, muscling out to a 24-point lead before hanging on for a 70-55 win over the short-handed Western Illinois Leathernecks in The Jungle. Junior Alex Young led all scorers with 21 points and Stephen Thomas matched his career-high with 16 in the win.
IUPUI (8-8, 2-1 Summit) ran its current winning streak to a season-best three-in-a-row as the calendar shifts from 2010 to 2011. Western Illinois came in allowing a league-low 59.2 points per game, yet IUPUI’s 70 points were just two shy of the most allowed by the Leathernecks this season.
“This was a good win for us. We’ve played a lot of really good defensive teams this year, so we’re getting more comfortable offensively,” IUPUI Head Coach Ron Hunter said. “It helps when you’ve got a guy like Alex Young on your roster, but we wanted to jump on them early and land the first blow. That’s what we talked about was getting ahead early and making them have to play from behind. If they get in front of you and make you grind it out, you’re in for a dogfight.
“This was a really good way to end the year – by getting back to .500 and getting a big time win.”
IUPUI shot 50 percent from the floor and outrebounded Western Illinois (5-7, 1-2) 38-23 in the victory.
After the game was tied at 6-6 early, IUPUI unloaded a 14-2 run by holding Western without a field goal for nearly seven minutes. Young keyed the burst with two layups and a breakaway dunk and John Ashworth capped it with a three in transition off a Thomas assist. The Leathernecks got back within seven at 22-15 with 8:59 left when Jelani Johnson buried a three, but IUPUI kept the heat on and pushed its lead out to 41-25 by halftime.
Seemingly every first half break went the way of the Jaguars including a wild tip of a loose ball by Donovan Gibbs, that happened to rattle in the basket midway through the stanza. On the half’s final possession, IUPUI was late in setting up its offense, but Ashworth made it work when he buried a 24-footer as time expired. The 16-point margin was IUPUI’s largest to that point.
IUPUI went for the knockout punch to start the second half and opened with an 8-0 run in which Thomas played a hand in three of the four baskets. His lob on the opening possession of the second half led to a Young layup and he later added a short jumper and driving hoop to make it 49-25.
Relying on their defense, Western battled back and closed within 11 with 7:46 left when Kaimarr Price hit a sweeping hook across the lane.
However, IUPUI’s rebounding advantage helped the hosts stay in front.
Searching for offensive life, the Jaguars’ next two buckets came courtesy of Christian Siakam tip-ins of teammates misses, making it 61-46 with 6:43 to play. Senior Leroy Nobles finally ended any suspense with a three from the right wing at the 3:43 mark.
Nobles finished with 15 points and four boards in 38 minutes work.
“This was really a total team effort,” Hunter said. “Our first five really did a nice job, but when we went to our bench, we got some production. Donovan gave us some nice minutes and Smooth gave us some more good minutes and we’re going to need that.”
Western, which was playing without three key cogs including All-Summit performer Ceola Clark, got 16 points from Evansville-native Matt Lander and 11 from Tommie Tyler. Price added 10 points, four boards and four assists in 32 minutes.
The Leathernecks shot 46 percent overall and hit 7-of-12 (58.3 percent) from beyond the arc. After hitting 22 threes in the past two games, IUPUI went just 5-of-15 (33.3 percent) from deep on Thursday.
Ashworth was 2-of-6 to account for his six points, but also added six assists and a career-high six steals. Siakam finished with six points and nine boards (six offensive) in just 22 minutes. The Jaguars outscored WIU 16-6 on second chance points.
Young hit 9-of-18 shots and collected eight rebounds and two steals as he inched closer to joining the top 10 on the program’s all-time scoring list. His 1,272 are just 47 shy of tying Brandon Cole for tenth all-time in the scoring column.
The win improved IUPUI to 22-8 all-time against WIU and ran its current winning streak to five straight over the Leathernecks. The Jaguars also climbed back to .500 for the first time since the Dec. 2 win over Centenary.
IUPUI will continue Summit League play on Jan. 6 when it heads to Rochester, Mich. to take on preseason favorite and returning champion Oakland University in a rematch of last year’s championship game. Tipoff is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. from the Athletics Center O’Rena and the game will be televised on Fox Sports Detroit.
