INDIANAPOLIS - Senior Darell Combs pumped in a game-high 28 points and classmate Matt O'Leary added 20 points and nine rebounds as IUPUI opened Summit League play with a convincing 89-71 win over Western Illinois inside Indiana Farmers Coliseum on Saturday afternoon (Dec. 31). 

With the win, IUPUI improved to 7-8 overall and 1-1 in The Summit while Western Illinois dropped to 4-9 overall and 1-1 to start league play. 

IUPUI was the last team to start Summit League play and opened with a shoddy start on Saturday as Western Illinois surged out to a 16-5 lead. The Fighting Leathernecks, who knocked off Summit League favorite Fort Wayne on Thursday, hit their first four threes of the contest, forcing Head Coach Jason Gardner to burn an early timeout. 

"We've got three fifth-year seniors in the starting lineup, so we've kind of seen it all," O'Leary said. "I don't think we were surprised by it. We just didn't get off to a very good start, but we got it going from there."

The Jaguars scored the game's next nine points, the final five coming on Combs' jumpers, to force WIU to burn a similar timeout. IUPUI didn't take it's first lead of the game until the 9:42 mark of the first half when Ron Patterson stroked a pair of free throws after a Thomas steal. O'Leary put the hosts ahead for good with 7:52 left when he hit a short jumper and drew a foul. The lead grew as large as 10 in the first half before the Jags settled for a 47-39 lead at the break. 

Western Illinois crept within two at 54-52 in the opening stages of the second half, but the Jags answered with a 10-2 run to retake a double-digit lead. Josh James began the run by finishing at the rim off a brilliant pass from O'Leary. Combs added a cold blooded dagger of a three and T.J. Henderson finished the run with a hard earned three-point play at the rim. 

The final 10 minutes, IUPUI seemingly had an answer for every WIU made basket before ballooning the final margin to 18. 

"I thought we did a good job of responding to them when they'd hit shots," IUPUI Head Coach Jason Gardner said. "They made some tough jumpers, but I thought our guys did a good job of continuing to dig in and contest their jump shooters. 

"I was really proud that we got contributions from every guy that stepped on the court today. From Darell and Matt and Kellon offensively, but beyond that, I thought D.J. hit the glass hard and Ron did a really good job of getting deflections and making it hard for Covington."

WIU's Garret Covington, who entered play ranked second in The Summit in scoring, finished with 22 points on 8-of-18 shooting. Indiana-native Mike Miklusak led WIU with 23 points, five rebounds and five assists while another Indiana-native, Jalen Morgan, added 10 off the bench. 

Senior Kellon Thomas scored a season-high 15 points and added three assists. 

Thomas put the final nail in the coffin, rattling in a corner three as the shot clock expired on a broken play with 2:37 to play, pushing the Jags' lead to 13. O'Leary tracked down an errant pass and redirected a one-handed feed to an open Thomas in the corner, who buried the shot in front of his own bench. 

"That was luck, I can't lie," O'Leary said. "I credit Kellon for hitting the shot. It was more of being lucky and being in the right spot."

IUPUI finished the day shooting 48 percent from the floor and just 7-of-14 (50 percent) from three. The Jags did the bulk of their damage inside the arc, outscoring Western Illinois 34-24 in the paint. IUPUI outmuscled the Leathernecks to a 42-30 rebounding advantage, using 15 offensive rebounds to snuff out 21 second chance points. 

"I liked how hard our guys fought, especially inside," Gardner said. "We did a good job of getting on 50-50 balls and just trying to be the first on the floor for loose balls. Those are the kinds of things that help you win tight, tough conference games."

Sophomore Evan Hall finished with eight points, seven rebounds and three blocked shots and Henderson added seven on a perfect 5-of-5 at the free throw line. 

IUPUI improved to 3-0 in Summit League openers under Gardner and 32-14 all-time against Western Illinois. 

The Jaguars will return to action on Thursday, Jan. 5 when they trek to Fargo, N.D., to take on North Dakota State. That game will tip-off at 8:00 p.m. Eastern (7 Central) and will be heard on 97.5 Fox Sports FM, 1260 WNDE and the iHeartRadio app as Morgan Adcock (pxp) is on the call.