CEDAR CITY, Utah – Trailing by three at the break, the IUPUI basketball team exploded for 47 second half points on its way to an emphatic 87-61 win at Southern Utah on Saturday night inside Centrum Arena. Junior
Alex Young led four Jaguars in double-digits with 27 points and senior
Leroy Nobles added 22 points in the win. Junior
Christian Siakam added 15 on a perfect 5-of-5 shooting and junior
Stephen Thomas chipped in with 14.
“We definitely needed this,” Siakam said. “After the loss on Thursday, we really needed to get this win tonight. It’s a big win for us.”
After falling behind by as many as 10 in the first half, it was all IUPUI (12-10, 6-3 Summit) in the second half as the visiting Jaguars shot 65 percent from the floor and outscored the Thunderbirds, 47-18. Trailing by five early in the second half, IUPUI used a 17-2 burst to take the lead for good. Siakam helped spark the run with a pair of blocks at the defensive end and Thomas contributed a key triple during the rally.
Even after SUU (6-13, 3-6 Summit) closed within seven with 11:06 to play on a Kyle Davis layup, IUPUI retaliated with a 22-0 run to end any suspense. Senior
John Ashworth scored all six of his points during the rally and Nobles capped the burst with his second three of the game.
“We really needed that second half,” IUPUI Head Coach
Ron Hunter said. “We were able to score in the first half, but we didn’t play much defense. We preached at halftime about the importance of getting stops and continuing to score the basketball like we did in the first half.
“I thought we did a good job of staying aggressive and making plays in the second half.”
Young hit 11-of-16 shots and grabbed a team-high seven boards in the win while senior
Anthony Williams grabbed a career-high six boards off the bench. IUPUI owned the boards 34-26 overall and outscored SUU 18-9 on second chance points.
Ryan Brimley led Southern Utah with 19 points, 16 of which came in the first half.
Southern Utah led nearly the entire first half, fueled by Brimley’s four first half treys. A Jake Nielson layup made it 33-23 with 5:26 left before halftime before IUPUI closed with a 17-10 finish to make it 43-40 at the break.
The Jaguars didn’t take the lead for good until 15:13 remained when Nobles dropped in an uncontested layup after SUU’s Ray Jones had tied the score at 51 all on a layup. Jones, SUU’s top scorer coming in, had nine points and eight assists on Saturday and Davis added 13 points and five boards on 6-of-8 shooting.
After making 54 percent of its first half attempts, Southern Utah was just 7-of-24 from the floor after halftime. SUU also ended with 13 turnovers, leading to 23 Jaguar points.
The win was IUPUI’s ninth in 10 games against SUU and the seventh out of eight in trips to Cedar City.
“I honestly didn’t know how we’d come out tonight,” Hunter said. “I thought we’d be tired coming in and that kind of explains the slow start. We finally got our legs under us and really came out strong in the second half. I’m just happy to get the win and ready to get back home and in our own beds.”
Thomas distributed five of the team’s nine assists and Young collected three steals in the win. Siakam tied his career-high with three blocked shots in 28 minutes work and hit 5-of-7 at the charity stripe. He also grabbed four boards and now has hit his last 13 attempts from the floor dating back to the win over South Dakota State.
IUPUI will return to action on Saturday, Jan. 29 when it travels to Macomb, Ill. to take on Western Illinois at Western Hall.
