INDIANAPOLIS - After a sluggish start, the IUPUI basketball team pulled away from crosstown Marian University with an 81-60 win inside Indiana Farmers Coliseum on Wednesday night (Dec. 28). Senior Darell Combs led the way with 23 points and junior Aaron Brennan finished with 13 points, one shy of matching his career-best. 

Senior Matt O'Leary rounded out the double-digit scorers with 10 points, six rebounds and three blocked shots and sophomore D.J. McCall was a one-man wrecking crew with four points, 11 rebounds and seven assists. Indianapolis-native Wesley Stowers led Marian (9-8) with 16 points and five assists. 

"I thought our guys did a good job. In the beginning, we were just kind of missing shots and I think because of the break, the guys were stressing a little bit at the start of the game," Head Coach Jason Gardner said. "I think they really calmed down and got in a good flow and started hitting shots.

"We got some run outs and some easy ones in transition and that helped everyone."

The first half of the first half was anything but pretty for the Jaguars as they misfired from all angles and all directions. It took more than 10 minutes for the hosts to find the range, before closing the half hot. The Jags finally took the lead for good with 6:24 left before intermission when O'Leary swished his second trey in 66 seconds. After a defensive stop, Kellon Thomas stroked a trey to push the lead to 21-16. 

After yielding a pair of free throws, Combs and Brennan combined on all 10 points in a 10-0 run, punctuated by the former's three-point play in transition. The Jags ultimately outscored Marian 30-15 over the final 10-plus minutes to take a 38-24 lead to the locker room. 

IUPUI (6-8) scored the first seven points of the second half to build a 21-point lead and never looked back. The Knights crept within 14 on a couple different occasions, but IUPUI responded with a 12-0 run, sealed by a T.J. Henderson steal and dunk to send the bench into a frenzy. Brennan, who had made just 10 career treys entering the game, connected on back-to-back triples to start the run and finished the game 3-of-4 from beyond the arc. 

After a slow start, IUPUI finished 10-of-24 (41.7 percent) from three-point range and 47 percent overall. Marian shot just 37.5 percent from the field and 5-of-19 (26.3 percent) from deep. 

Combs closed by hitting 8-of-14 shots overall and 3-of-4 from deep. The Chicago-native tallied his 1,000th collegiate point on Wednesday, upping his total to 745 in an IUPUI uniform. The 6-foot-2 guard tallied 271 points at Eastern Michigan as a sophomore in 2013-14. 

IUPUI finished with a season-high seven blocked shots and a 19-10 advantage in points off turnovers by forcing 17 Marian miscues. 

"I think we got some energy from our defense tonight, especially in the beginning of the game," Gardner said. "Even when we weren't hitting shots, we were getting stops and that's what kept the game close. Then when the shots started to fall, we were able to get a little breathing room and relax a bit."

Thomas chipped in eight points and Henderson added six off the bench. True freshman Giovanni Fraser had his best showing of the year with five points in just eight minutes on the inside. 

"I was looking at it the other day and we really only had five guys on this year's team play last year," Gardner said. "So I think the guys have done a good job of kind of coming together and finding their roles. Kellon is doing a good job of getting in the gaps and getting everyone involved and D.J. and Ron (Patterson) have done a good job of finding their roles and fitting in more. 

"This is kind of the first part of the season and I think our guys have done a good job. I think we're ready for conference play."

IUPUI closed the non-conference slate with a perfect 4-0 mark and hasn't lost a home non-conference game since December 2014. 

The Jaguars will turn the focus to Summit League play, beginning with a New Year's Eve matchup with Western Illinois at Indiana Farmers Coliseum. That contest will tip-off at 1:00 p.m. on Saturday (Dec. 31) and will be followed by the women's game against WIU at 3:30 p.m.. That game will be broadcast on ESPN3 as Greg Rakestraw (pxp) and Hall of Famer Bob Lovell (analyst) describe the action from courtside. In addition, the game can be heard on 97.5 Fox Sports FM, 1260 WNDE and the iHeartRadio app as Morgan Adcock (pxp) is on the call. Tickets are available via Ticketmaster or at the Coliseum box office.