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INDIANAPOLIS - The IUPUI basketball team was seeing 20-20 on Saturday night as the Jaguars used an early second half burst to race past Southern Utah, 77-61. The win gave IUPUI its fifth-ever 20-win season under Head Coach Ron Hunter and the Jags matched a Division I record with 20 steals in the Senior Night victory.
The win sealed up the No. 2 seed for the Jaguars in the upcoming Summit League Tournament.
Senior Robert Glenn had a game-high 28 points and sophomore Alex Young scored 21 as the duo combined to hit 18-of-30 field goal tries. Overall, the Jags shot 52 percent from the floor.
"Senior Night is always tough because you have all those emotions before the game and it really takes awhile to get going. I think that was the case tonight. I think the guys were pressing a little too much in the first half, trying to make the spectacular play," Hunter said. "We used our defense to get us going in the second half and to help us get easy looks in transition."
IUPUI (20-9, 13-3 Summit) built an early 16-10 lead behind Glenn's hot start, but found itself trailing for nearly the final nine minutes of the first half once Davis Baker heated up. However, a Young pickpocket and dunk with 10 seconds left tied the score at 33 all at the break and proved to be a precursor to the second half.
SUU (6-21, 2-14) got a Matt Hodgson layup on the opening possession of the second half, but then yielded a 26-2 run over the next 10 minutes as the IUPUI full court press turned up the intensity. The Jags had seven steals during the rally, helping contribute to IUPUI's 13-2 advantage in fast break points on Saturday. T-Bird Head Coach Roger Reid called two timeouts before the first media break of the second half, but was unsuccessful in breaking the Jags' momentum.
Southern Utah went over 10 minutes without a field goal as IUPUI turned a two-point deficit into a 22-point lead.
The T-Birds got as close as 14 with 3:59 left when Ryan Brimley hit a contested top of the key three, but Glenn answered with a layup off a feed from Young.
Young paced the IUPUI defense with five steals and both Billy Pettiford and Jon Avery added four. Glenn and John Ashworth had three each with the latter also handing out eight assists against zero turnovers. Junior Leroy Nobles was the only other IUPUI player to score in double-figures, finishing with 12 points and hitting three threes.
Baker led SUU with 21 points and seven rebounds and freshman Dallin Bachynski closed with nine points and five boards off the bench. Southern Utah shot 57.1 percent overall and hit 7-of-12 (58.3 percent) from three, but turned the ball over 26 times and attempted just 42 shots.
"We did a good job of making them very uncomfortable tonight," Hunter said. "They're a very young team in the backcourt, so we wanted to throw as much length and pressure at them as possible. I think some of those kids are going to be really, really good for him but it's hard to win with freshmen in the backcourt."
IUPUI's 20 steals tied the mark set against St. Joseph's College in 2003 and was just two shy of an all-time school record.
The Jaguars will wrap up the regular season with a two-game road trip that begins in Fargo, N.D. against North Dakota State. Thursday's game will tipoff at 8:00 p.m. EST with Scott McCauley's pregame coverage beginning at 7:50.
