Tourney Central Page

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. - The IUPUI basketball team is hoping the third time is a charm when the Jaguars take on No. 2 South Dakota State (24-7) in the quarterfinals round of The Summit League Tournament on Saturday (Feb. 3) night inside Sioux Falls Arena at 9:30 p.m. Eastern. SDSU swept the regular season series over the Jaguars with a overtime victory in Indianapolis in early December and a double-digit triumph over IUPUI in Brookings to end the regular season.

Saturday's game can be seen in the Indianapolis-area on Hometown Sports & News (HTSN - RTV6.2) and nationally on Fox College Sports. In addition, the game will be broadcast in the upper Midwest on Midco Sports. The contest can also be heard in Central Indiana on WNDE 1260 AM and worldwide on WNDE.com or through the free iHeartRadio app available on smartphones.

Both IUPUI (14-17) and SDSU were among the hottest teams in the league at season's end with SDSU winning five straight to close the regular season and eight of their past nine. IUPUI went 6-2 during the month of February with the only two losses coming on the road against the league's top two teams, Oral Roberts and SDSU.

"We like the way we're playing right now," IUPUI head coach Todd Howard said. "We've really been playing good, unselfish basketball down the stretch. It's not that we weren't playing good basketball before that, but we really didn't catch many breaks during the first three months of the season.

"We've lost a lot of close games. We lost by a possession here or a weird play there and it's cost us some games. I don't fully think our record is indicative of what kind of team we have, but so be it. We're just excited to be back to 0-0 and playing in the month of March."

Both IUPUI and SDSU boast some of the top performers in the league as well as senior Alex Young and Jackrabbits' junior Nate Wolters were both voted First Team All-Summit League, as announced on Thursday. The duo both rank among the top 12 in the country in scoring with Wolters at 21.2 per night and Young at 20.7 points per. Young continues to lead the country in career scoring with 2,276 points heading into postseason play. On Thursday, he became the first player in IUPUI history to earn three straight first team ballots, as voted on by the league's coaches, media and sports information personnel.

IUPUI has found a strong balance of late in league play with four players scoring in double-digits for Howard's squad. Behind Young, senior Stephen Thomas (11.5 ppg), sophomore Ian Chiles (11.3 ppg) and senior Christian Siakam (10.1 ppg) in Summit League action. Siakam has also upped his rebounding to a team-high 6.4 per game in league play while Thomas leads the team with 3.1 assists per game in Summit League action. Chiles, who comes in averaging nearly four rebounds per game as well, was voted to the league's All-Newcomer Team and is one of just four league newcomers to be scoring in double-digits in conference play.

IUPUI is 6-4 all-time against SDSU, despite the Jackrabbits having won the three most recent meetings. The Jaguars are 11-1 all-time in the quarterfinals round of The Summit League Tournament and have amassed 16 tourney wins in 12 seasons.