MACOMB, Ill. - Winners of two out of three to start Summit League play, the IUPUI basketball team will have a quick turnaround when the Jaguars take on Western Illinois (7-6, 0-2 Summit) inside Western Hall on Saturday afternoon (Jan. 9). Game time is scheduled for 3:00 p.m. Eastern and pregame coverage will begin at approximately 2:45 on 107.5 FM as Morgan Adcock (pxp) describes the action.
IUPUI (6-12, 2-1 Summit) rattled off an impressive 74-67 win over league favorite South Dakota State on Thursday night, thanks to 18 points from junior
Darell Combs and a stingy defensive effort that held the Jackrabbits to just 41 percent overall and 7-of-28 (25 percent) from three-point range. Combs helped fuel a late 17-3 run that turned a one-point deficit into a 13-point lead with just more than three minutes to play. The Chicago-native ignited the run with a three-point play in transition and later buried a long trey with the shot clock running down to help bury the guests. Sophomore
Jordan Pickett added 14 points on 4-of-5 shooting off the bench and junior
Nick Osborne contributed 11, including a late three that pushed the lead from two to five.
With the win, IUPUI snapped an 11-game losing skid to SDSU and improved to 4-0 at home this season. The Jaguars were impressive in virtually every facet of the contest, outrebounding the Jackrabbits 37-33 and committing just 12 turnovers that led to only eight SDSU points. Senior
Marcellus Barksdale finished with eight points, six rebounds and three blocked shots and junior
Matt O'Leary added five points and a game-high seven boards before fouling out.
SDSU (13-4, 2-1) got a career-high 23 points off the bench from redshirt freshman Mike Daum and both George Marshall and Deondre Parks finished with 15 apiece on a combined 11-of-31 shooting.
IUPUI enters Saturday's game with a 29-14 advantage in the series with Western Illinois and won the most recent meeting, 71-66 in Indianapolis on Feb. 26, 2015. IUPUI hasn't won in Macomb since 2011 when the Jaguars captured a 56-45 victory over the Leathernecks. A win on Saturday would push the Jaguars to 3-1 to start Summit League play, equaling the program's best league start since the 2009-10 season.
JAGUAR TIDBITS
TOP FOUR
IUPUI's top four scorers this season are all Division I transfers who sat out last season. The quartet of
Darell Combs,
Matt O'Leary,
Jordan Pickett and
Nick Osborne have teamed to score 42.9 points per game. Senior
Marcellus Barksdale is the team's top returning scorer from a year ago and is scoring 7.6 points per game this year.
ROAD WARRIORS
IUPUI's 13 true road games at this juncture are tied for the most in America (Arkansas-Pine Bluff has also played 13). IUPUI trekked more than 5,400 miles in the non-conference schedule, playing 12 of 15 games away from home (includes one neutral site game). Since then, IUPUI has traveled another 2,800-plus miles to start Summit League play with games in Vermillion, S.D. and Omaha.
PERFECT AT HOME IN THE NON-CONFERENCE
IUPUI finished the home portion of the non-conference slate with a perfect mark this season, going 3-0 in those contests. It marks IUPUI's first perfect non-conference slate since the 2010-11 season when the Jaguars had just two non-conference home games (IU-Northwest & IU-East).
HOME COOKING
In going 4-0 at home this season, IUPUI is averaging 80.0 points per game and shooting 49.1 percent from the floor (109-of-222) in wins over Kentucky State, Miami, Southern Utah and South Dakota State.
IUPUI has won the four home games by an average of 9.8 points per game.
2-1 START
IUPUI has opened Summit League play at 2-1 for the second straight season under Head Coach Jason Gardner. IUPUI hasn't opened 3-1 since the 2009-10 season when the Jaguars started 3-0 and 9-1 en route to a 15-3 league mark.
DEFENDING THE ARC
Thanks to length at virtually every position, IUPUI has done a good job of defending the three-point line all season long, allowing just 32.1 percent overall and 21.1 percent (12-of-57) in Summit League play.
That number will be tested at Western Illinois on Saturday as the Leathernecks are shooting 42.1 percent from deep.
81 STRAIGHT
Senior swingman
Marcellus Barksdale has started 81 straight games for the Jaguars, dating back to the opener of the 2013-14 season. Classmate Mason Archie is second on the active roster, having made 30 career starts.
Barksdale is the program's lone four-year senior and has quietly stacked up some impressive numbers in his IUPUI career. Barksdale, in his fifth year with the program, has accumulated 813 points, 527 boards, 254 assists and 141 steals. He also surpassed the 3,000 career minute mark against Butler on Dec. 28. He ranks among IUPUI's top 15 all-time in both rebounds and assists and it's not unreasonable to think Barksdale could finish as the 23rd member of IUPUI's 1,000 Point Club.
IN LEAGUE PLAY
Albeit in a modest sample size, IUPUI has been extremely balanced in the opening three Summit League games with seven players averaging better than 8.3 points per game. Combs leads the crew at 15 points per game, followed by O'Leary (10.3 ppg), Barksdale (10.3) and Pickett (10.0). Hall checks in at 8.7 points per game while both Archie and Osborne are at 8.3 points per game.
SDSU TAKEAWAYS
IUPUI's win over SDSU snapped an 11-game losing streak to the Jackrabbits... SDSU came in ranked No. 13 in the Mid-Major Top 25 and No. 36 in the RPI... IUPUI limited to SDSU to just 24 points in the paint - the fewest by an IUPUI foe last season... senior Mason Archie matched his career-high with five rebounds (four defensive)... IUPUI had two double-digit scorers off the bench with
Jordan Pickett (14) and
Nick Osborne (11)... the Jaguars outscored SDSU 21-10 at the free throw line... IUPUI improved to 4-0 at home on the year... Gardner improved to 6-5 in January games in his second season with the program.
SMART CATS
With fall semester grades recently posted, four Jaguars earned Academic Advisor's List with a 3.0 GPA or better -
Marcellus Barksdale,
Aaron Brennan,
Matt O'Leary and
Noah Thomas. O'Leary, a management major, topped the bunch with a 3.93 GPA during the fall.
HALL BOUND
It was recently announced the former basketball standout Odell Bradley will be inducted in the IUPUI Hall of Fame on Saturday, Jan. 16. The 2004 Mid-Continent Conference Player of the Year and honorable mention All-American will later be recognized at halftime of that afternoon's game as the Jaguars host Denver at 1:00 p.m. at Indiana Farmers Coliseum.
#SCTOP10
Junior guard
Darell Combs found himself on ESPN SportsCenter's Top 10 on Dec. 10 after burying a 60-footer at the end of the first half of the loss at Missouri State. Combs' play was the No. 3 play that night.
SECOND HALVES
After playing the first halves of games virtually even this year, the IUPUI basketball team has been outscored 748-634 in the second halves and overtime periods this season - which equates to 6.3 points per contest.
MAKE SHOTS - WIN GAMES
Simple math tells you that making more shots than your opponents will win games. Those numbers hold true for IUPUI in the two seasons Jason Gardner has been at the helm.
IUPUI is 15-5 (6-0 this season) when shooting a higher percentage from the floor than their opposition while going 1-28 (0-12 this season) when being outshot by opponents.
