Box Score I Box Score (.pdf)
SHREVEPORT, La. – Senior Leroy Nobles scored a game-high 24 points and junior forward Christian Siakam notched his fifth career double-double as IUPUI capped the regular season with an easy 78-57 win at Centenary on Saturday night. Siakam scored 16 of his 18 points in the second half, grabbed 11 boards and blocked three shots in the victory.
The Jaguars hit just 29 percent in the first half and had a 29-19 lead at the break before exploding for 49 second half points.
“We really preached defense coming into this game,” IUPUI Head Coach Ron Hunter said. “After giving up 92 at Oral Roberts on Thursday, we talked about coming in and really locking them down defensively. We really did that in the first half, but we kind of looked lost offensively.
“It was good for us to get in a rhythm offensively in the second half and get feeling good about ourselves before the conference tournament.”
IUPUI (18-13, 12-6 Summit) opened up a 10-3 lead to start, thanks to five points each from Nobles and Stephen Thomas before Centenary (1-29, 1-17) crept back within 10-8 at the 11:56 mark. From there, IUPUI put together an 11-2 run, beginning with six straight makes at the charity stripe. Junior Alex Young capped the run with his only first half field goal when the lefty stroked a wing three with 7:00 before halftime.
IUPUI maintained its 10-point lead for the remainder of the half.
The Gents made it an eight-point game at 40-32 with 14:47 left when Jeron Trotman came up with a steal, leading to a Leo Davis transition bucket.
From there, it was all Jags.
Nobles opened up a 24-5 run with a three from the corner and Siakam scored on a putback on IUPUI’s next offensive trip. After Davis made his second three of the second half, Nobles continued to push the lead further out at the foul line. Young and Siakam punctuated the run with back-to-back dunks as the advantage eventually swelled to 64-37.
Nobles and Siakam combined for 22 of the Jags’ 24 points during the nine minute span.
Centenary made a mini charge in the final five minutes after the outcome was well in hand.
Thomas finished with 15 points, including hitting all three of his three-point attempts, and Young scored 12 on 5-of-12 shooting. Nobles was 6-of-10 from the floor and 9-of-10 at the charity stripe as the Jaguars went 13-of-14 (92.9 percent) at the foul line. Nobles also became the eighth player in IUPUI history to surpass 1,400 career points in an IUPUI uniform on Saturday.
“Leroy’s been playing really well,” Hunter said. “Today, he did a little bit of everything. He hit open shots, he did a good job of penetrating and creating and he did a nice job defensively.”
The Jags forced 21 Centenary turnovers and converted them into 32 points at the other end. Both Nobles and classmate John Ashworth had three steals each and Young and Siakam each had two picks.
Davis led Centenary with 14 points and Maxx Nakwaasah finished with 10 points and six boards.
With the win, IUPUI swept the season series with Centenary and improved to 10-3 all-time against the Gents. The game was most likely the Jaguars’ final-ever trip to Centenary as the Gents will be dropping to NCAA Division III play, beginning next season. They have already agreed to compete in the American Southwest Conference.
“We’ve got some good memories of games down here,” Hunter said. “I know we won a regular season championship on this court a few years ago and we had a couple nail biters here with them when they first came into the league.”
IUPUI will now begin preparations for the upcoming Summit League Tournament, being held at the Sioux Falls Arena in Sioux Falls, S.D. on Mar. 5-8. The Jaguars will enter the postseason as the No. 3 seed and will take on No. 6 UMKC at 9:30 p.m. Eastern on Sunday (Mar. 6) night. The winner will play the winner of No. 2 Oral Roberts/No. 7 North Dakota State, who will meet on Saturday night.
All of IUPUI’s postseason games can be heard on 88.3 FM / The Walk as Scott McCauley (play-by-play) will call the action from courtside at the Sioux Falls Arena. Pregame coverage will begin approximately five minutes before tipoff.
