SIOUX FALLS, S.D. – Top seeded Oakland got a career-high 36 points from fifth-year senior Derick Nelson and bullied IUPUI on the glass on its way to a 76-64 win in The Summit League Championship game inside Sioux Falls Arena on Tuesday night. With the win, OU advances to the NCAA Tournament for the second time since 2005 while the Jaguars put their postseason chances in the hands of committees.
Nelson was named Tourney MVP after finishing two points shy of a tournament single-game scoring record.
“He made plays and that what a senior is supposed to do,” IUPUI Head Coach
Ron Hunter said. “That’s not to take anything away from my team. We played six guys pretty much all year – these guys overachieved. They fought through adversity all year long.”
The Jaguars had the lead early, peaking at 18-10 at the 9:44 mark when sophomore
Alex Young swished a baseline three. From there, the ordinarily efficient IUPUI offense went stale when Oakland switched from its typical man-to-man defense to a zone. With the 6-foot-11 Benson presiding over the interior of the zone, the Jags’ marksmen were unable to hit open looks.
“Give Greg (Kampe) credit, their zone slowed us down. Rob (Glenn) struggles against zones. It just kind of takes him out of his game,” Hunter said.
Even after Benson was sent to the sidelines with his third foul at the 4:35 mark, IUPUI still struggled to get easy looks with both Glenn and Young having similar foul difficulties. Nelson, last year’s Preseason Player of the Year, looked the part on Tuesday, scoring 11 points in succession as Oakland (26-8) rattled off an 11-0 run to take the lead. The Grizz’ largest lead of the first half came with 0.3 left when Young was whistled for a foul on Larry Wright’s 14-footer. The St. John’s-transfer hit both, making it 35-28 at the break.
IUPUI (24-10) opened the second half with back-to-back field goals, but Oakland responded with another 11-0 run, this time capped by a Nelson trey. By the time the Jaguars showed signs of life, it was too late.
Junior
Leroy Nobles hit back-to-back threes, cutting the OU lead to 64-55 with 4:59 left, prompting a timeout. Out of the timeout, Wright penetrated through the Jaguars’ defense and banked home a runner while drawing a foul on
Billy Pettiford in the process. IUPUI got no closer than nine the rest of the way.
Young led the Jags with 19 points on 7-of-16 shooting and Glenn scored 18, making 8-of-10 shots. Both were chosen to the All-Tournament Team. Nobles also finished in double-digits with 14 points, including three threes.
Wright was the only other OU player to reach double-digits as he scored 16. Benson finished with eight points, 17 rebounds and six blocked shots.
“I thought we did a pretty good job on Benson,” Hunter said. “He only took eight shots and I thought we did a good job of keeping it out of his hands. Nelson just killed us though.”
Nelson hit 15-of-23 shots and grabbed nine boards, despite playing with a broken nose he suffered on Saturday. OU outrebounded IUPUI 43-26 overall and 16-5 off the offensive glass. The rebounding disparity led to a 19-2 advantage in second chance points with IUPUI’s only extra opportunity coming in a Glenn tip-in with less than five minutes left.
IUPUI’s two other seniors,
Jon Avery and Pettiford, etched their names deeper in the record books on Tuesday. Avery became the 20th player in school history to accumulate 1,000 career points and is now just the eighth in history to total over 1,000 points and 500 rebounds. Pettiford became the school’s single-season steals leader by collecting four in the loss. He came in tied with Mike Archer and Aldray Gibson for the single-season mark with 73.
“I love this group of seniors,” Hunter said. “Billy’s one of the toughest, smartest kids I’ve ever coached. Jon’s done everything we’ve asked of him for four years now and is an incredible, incredible kid. He's been a rock for us. And Rob’s a tremendous talent. He’s one of the best players I’ve ever had the privilege to coach.”
IUPUI came into Tuesday’s game with an RPI of 85 and will now wait and see if its chosen to play in the NIT, CBI or CIT.
“I kind of lost some faith in the process,” Hunter said. “Two years ago, I had a team win 26 games and not get selected. I don’t think that’s fair that they picked over us and rewarded mediocrity. It’s sexier to take the seventh place team from the Big Ten or ninth place team from the BIG EAST, but it’s not fair to teams like us and Oral (Roberts).”
