CEDAR CITY, Utah - The hot shooting beat rolled on for the IUPUI basketball team on Saturday evening (Dec. 17) as the Jaguars roared past former Summit League foe Southern Utah, 101-81 inside SUU's Centrum Arena. The Jaguars shot 60 percent from the floor and 13-of-28 (46.4 percent) from three-point range to rack up back-to-back 100-point games for the first time since January 1995.

Senior Matt O'Leary led five Jaguars in double-digits with 20 points on 8-of-9 shooting and Darell Combs contributed 16 points. Junior Ron Patterson had 15 points and a career-high six assists while both Evan Hall and T.J. Henderson finished with 11. 

Randy Onwuasor led Southern Utah (2-9) with 20 points. 

"I thought it started for us at the defensive end tonight," IUPUI Head Coach Jason Gardner said. "We got a lot of defensive stops in the first half and that led to us getting some good looks. That energy at the defensive end turned into some transition baskets and then that turned into knocking down shots from the perimeter.

"I'm proud of our guys. This isn't an easy trip and to fly across the country and come out here and take care of business was big for us. All in all, I think we're playing some pretty good basketball right now."

The Jags gained confidence by making 17 threes in a rout of Urbana earlier in the week and continued the hot shooting in the Utah mountains on Saturday. After a slow start, the Jaguars began airing out the offense, keyed by O'Leary, Combs and Henderson in the first half. Combs sparked an early go-ahead run and later Henderson hit back-to-back treys to put the Jags ahead 37-20 with 5:04 left before halftime. The Jaguars' 22-point halftime lead matched the team's largest of the opening half. 

The intermission failed to slow the Jags though as the lead swelled to 74-39 with 12:07 to play when Aaron Brennan knocked in a triple off a Patterson assist. The second half saw the focus of the Jaguars' offense move inside the three-point line as IUPUI finished with a decisive 44-20 margin in points in the paint. 

"I thought we were aggressive and did a good job of attacking them off the dribble," Gardner said. "We made pretty good decisions and shot with a lot of confidence today. It wasn't just one guy either - it was all 13 guys that got in the game."

More to follow..

IUPUI will continue the two-game trip when the Jaguars fly to Chicago to face Northwestern on Tuesday night (Dec. 20). That game will tip at 7:00 p.m. Central (8 Eastern) inside Northwestern's Welsh-Ryan Arena. That contest will be heard on 97.5 Fox Sports FM and the iHeartRadio app as Morgan Adcock (pxp) is on the call.