INDIANAPOLIS - The IUPUI basketball team seized a major opportunity to move into a four-way tie atop The Summit League standings by clawing out a 69-67 win over Western Illinois inside Indiana Farmers Coliseum on Friday afternoon (Jan. 29). Junior Matt O'Leary registered his first career double-double with a career-best 20 points and 10 boards and classmate Darell Combs supported the effort with 18 points, 14 coming in the second half. 

The victory moved IUPUI to 6-2 at the midpoint of Summit League play, joining Fort Wayne, Omaha and South Dakota State with the same mark. 

Garret Covington paced four Western Illinois (7-12, 0-8 Summit) players in double-digits with 23 points and Jalen Chapman tossed in 13 in the loss. IUPUI (10-13, 6-2) survived a scare late, getting a Covington turnover on Western's final possession, clinging to a 68-67 lead. Combs missed on a drive with 24 second left, giving the guests the ball and a chance to take the lead with 15.5 ticks left. The Fighting Leathernecks delivered the ball to Covington, who drove to the right block before facing a triple team. The 6-foot-5 junior was unable to get a shot to the rim and was called for a walk with just more than two seconds remaining. WIU fouled Mason Archie on the ensuing inbounds pass, sending the veteran to the line with 1.5 seconds remaining. Archie split the two freebies and WIU missed a half-court heave at the buzzer to seal the victory. 

"We did enough to win today. I thought at some point we'd make a run and get away from them, but they just kept coming back at us," IUPUI Head Coach Jason Gardner said. "We made enough plays down the stretch to get it done. We've got some veteran guys that know what it takes to win and I'm really proud of how they stepped it up down the stretch."

IUPUI pushed out to a 36-23 lead on a Jordan Pickett trey with 96 seconds left in the first half before Covington closed the stanza with a personal 8-0 run. The streaky junior hit back-to-back treys before ending the half with a tough reverse layup in traffic. WIU then opened the second half with consecutive triples to take a 37-36 lead before O'Leary stopped the run with a tough drive.  

The second half featured four ties and six lead changes before the Jaguars ultimately had the last laugh. WIU was up 59-55 with 6:23 left when Indiana-native Mike Miklusak stroked a wing three, but IUPUI fired back with a 9-0 run to take the lead for good. Aaron Brennan opened the run with a three-point play and Combs followed by burying a pair of free throws after a Nick Osborne steal. The lead grew to four when O'Leary stroked his second trey of the game off a Combs kickout pass with 4:23 left. Combs stretched the lead to five by splitting a pair of free throws, but WIU had one final push. 

Covington scored on a drive and back-to-back IUPUI turnovers allowed the Leathernecks to close within one when Tate Stensgaard made a pair of foul shots. The Jags never relinquished the lead though, getting a Brennan layup off a nifty O'Leary delivery with 1:45 left and Marcellus Barksdale tipped in his own miss to make it a three-point game with 65 seconds remaining. WIU's Jabari Sandifer closed the margin back to one with a pair of freebies with 48 seconds to play, setting up the final sequence. 

In winning its third straight and fifth in the past six games, the Jaguars continued to be efficient offensively, hitting 52 percent from the field and 50 percent from three-point range. The two blemishes on the final box were free throw shooting and rebounding. 

The Jags made just 11-of-20 (55 percent) from the foul line and were outrebounded 33-25 by the Leathernecks. Stensgaard had 10 points and eight boards and WIU point guard J.C. Fuller added 10 points and six rebounds. 

"We have to hit the glass harder at every position," Gardner said. "That's the second straight game we've been outrebounded and we've been lucky to win. I think we can continue to move the ball and play at a high level offensively, but still work to hit the glass harder and create some second chances and keep other teams off the offensive glass."

IUPUI built the early lead, primarily by forcing mistakes. Western Illinois turned it over 10 times in the opening 12 minutes and finished with 18 turnovers and just six assists. That led to an 18-11 IUPUI edge in points off turnovers. 

The win gave the Jaguars a season sweep of the Leathernecks as Gardner improved to 3-1 all-time against WIU. It was the Jags' third straight win over Western. 

IUPUI will cap the two-game homestand against North Dakota State on Sunday at 1:00 p.m. inside Indiana Farmers Coliseum as the feature event of IUPUI Homecoming Week. There will be a JagGating VIP Reception inside the Coliseum, beginning at 11:30 a.m. that day and the 2016 Royalty Court will be named at halftime of the contest. In addition, IUPUI has partnered with the Susan Komen Foundation and Regions Bank as Sunday's game will kickoff Cancer Awareness Month. IUPUI fans wearing pink will receive $5 off the price of an adult ticket. Additionally, Sunday is another Junior Jaguars Club day as members of the Junior Jags Kids Club are invited on the floor for a postgame layup line and the opportunity to meet-and-greet selected IUPUI players.