| IUPUI (12-16, 8-5 Summit) at North Dakota St. (17-10, 7-6 Summit) |
| Date: | Saturday, Feb. 20, 2016 // 5:00 p.m. ET |
| Location: | Fargo, N.D. // Scheels Arena (4,406) |
| TV: | NBC ND |
| Live Video: | GoBison.com |
| Live Radio: | 107.5 FM // Morgan Adcock (pxp) |
| Live Stats: | GoBison.com |
| Game Notes: | IUPUI // North Dakota State |
| Twitter: | @IUPUIJaguars; @IUPUIMensBball |
FARGO, N.D. - The IUPUI basketball team will make its final regular season road trip of the season on Saturday (Feb. 20) as the Jaguars travel to North Dakota State (17-10, 7-6 Summit) for a 5:00 p.m. tip. Saturday's game will be heard in Central Indiana on 107.5 FM as Morgan Adcock (pxp) is on the call.
IUPUI (12-16, 8-5) is seeking a clean sweep of the Bison, having won the opening half of the home-and-home series with a 73-72 win in Indianapolis earlier this season. Sophomore
Jordan Pickett spearheaded the victory with 20 points off the bench, including the game-winning three with 1.2 seconds left.
The Jaguars are fresh off an 88-76 win over Omaha as Head Coach
Jason Gardner's team scored a season-high 88 points and shot 56 percent from the field. Freshman
T.J. Henderson led six Jaguars in double-digits with a career-high 16 points and seniors
Mason Archie and
Marcellus Barksdale tallied 15 points each. Wednesday's win was the Jaguars' first wire-to-win of the season as IUPUI surged ahead by double-figures in the first half and never let the Mavs get closer than six points in the second half.
Darell Combs added 13 points and
Nick Osborne and
Aaron Brennan tallied 10 each.
IUPUI's offense was hindered by a season-high 19 turnovers in the win over Omaha, but used a 43-27 rebounding advantage to offset the miscues. The Jags +16 on the boards was a season-high effort.
The Jaguars are playing for valuable seeding heading into the month of March. IUPUI is currently fourth in the league standings, a half game behind Omaha and a full game clear of North Dakota State.
JAGUAR TIDBITSEIGHT AND COUNTING IUPUI's eight Summit League wins are the most since the 2010-11 season when the Jaguars finished 12-6 in conference play.
BREAKOUT PERFORMANCE On the heels of five straight shoddy halves offensively, IUPUI broke out the scoring stick on Wednesday night (Feb. 17) against Omaha, scoring a season-high 88 points, despite committing a season-high 19 turnovers.
The Jags shot an impressive 55.6 percent from the field and 7-of-16 (43.8 percent) from three-point range while using just seven players. Six of the seven Jags scored in double-digits, led by freshman T.J. Henderson's career-high 16 (6-8 FG, 2-3 3's, 2-2 FT) and 15 each from Mason Archie and Marcellus Barksdale.
Matt O'Leary was the lone regular to finish shy of double-digits, closing with nine points after he missed a free throw attempt in the final minute that would've made him the seventh double-figure scorer.
NOT THE USUAL SUSPECTS It wasn't the usual suspects doing damage against Omaha on Wednesday night as some unexpected scoring punch came from Henderson, Archie and Aaron Brennan.
That trio came in averaging roughly 13 points per game, but pumped in 41 points on a combined 16-of-20 shooting.
O'LEARY HONORED IUPUI junior Matt O'Leary was recently voted Academic All-District 5 for his prowess on the court and in the classroom. O'Leary has a 3.81 grade point average while majoring in management in the Kelley School of Business and is now eligible for Academic All-America honors.
He was joined on the District 5 team by Alec Peters (Valpo), Chris Fowler (Central Michigan), Max Hooper (Oakland) and Colby Wollenman (Michigan State).
CLOSE CALLS IUPUI had a recent four-game streak where all four games were decided by two points or less. The Jaguars dropped a 53-51 heartbreaker at Denver on Feb. 4 after squandering a 15-point second half lead.
Prior to that, IUPUI won three straight by a combined five points, two coming on last second buzzer beaters. The Jags won at Fort Wayne (84-82) when Marcellus Barksdale scored on left-handed layup as the final horn sounded.
The Jags then needed a defensive stop on the final play to beat Western Illinois (69-67) and picked off North Dakota State (73-72) on Jordan Pickett's trey with 1.2 seconds remaining.
IUPUI is 4-1 this season in games decided by two points or less, having beaten Indiana State 72-70 in the season opener.
FIRST MEETING IUPUI needed some late wizardry to snap a six-game skid to North Dakota State the first time these two teams met this season. NDSU led the bulk of the game and had a 10-point lead with under eight minutes to play before IUPUI closed the game on a 20-9 run to steal a win.
Sophomore Jordan Pickett capped the run with a three-pointer with 1.2 seconds left in front of the Jaguars' bench to seal the victory. Pickett scored a team-high 20 points (8-11 FG) off the bench and Darell Combs tossed in 17 points in the victory. Paul Miller led NDSU with 21 points, including hitting 5-of-10 from beyond the arc.
TRANSFERABLE GAINS Four of IUPUI's top five scorers are 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 nearly 44 points per game - more than 60 percent of the team's output. Senior Marcellus Barksdale is the team's top returning scorer from a year ago and is scoring 8.8 points per game this year.
BUZZER BEATERS IUPUI now has three buzzer beater winners in the Gardner-era as sophomore Jordan Pickett is the most recent Jaguar to knock one in, draining a three with 1.2 seconds left to send the Jags to a 73-72 win over North Dakota State.
Senior Marcellus Barksdale was the star of stars at Fort Wayne on Jan. 23 with a game-winning layup as the horn sounded.
Last season, P.J. Boutte beat Ball State in overtime with a runner at the horn to give the Jags a 71-69 on Nov. 22, 2014.
GOOD IN JANUARY IUPUI has been notoriously good in January under Head Coach Jason Gardner. IUPUI went 7-2 this January and 11-6 in the year's first month since Gardner took over last season.
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 20-5 (11-0 this season) when shooting a higher percentage from the floor than their opposition while going just 2-32 (1-16 this season) when being outshot by opponents.
91 STRAIGHT Senior swingman Marcellus Barksdale has started 91 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 40 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 922 points, 573 boards (10th on all-time list), 269 assists (13th on all-time list) and 156 steals (10th on all-time list, one ahead of George Hill).
It's not unreasonable to think Barksdale could finish as the 23rd member of IUPUI's 1,000 Point Club.
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).
IN LEAGUE PLAY IUPUI has been extremely balanced in 13 Summit League games with five players averaging at least nine points per game. Combs leads the crew at 14.2 points per game, followed by Barksdale (10.8 ppg), O'Leary (10.7 ppg), Pickett (10.4 ppg) and Osborne (9.4).
IUPUI also has six guys with at least 16 assists in league play, but none with more than 22 total dimes.
MORE LEAGUE TIDBITS In Summit League play, four of IUPUI's top six scorers are shooting 49 percent or better from the field... Nick Osborne (52.2%), Marcellus Barksdale (49.5%), Matt O'Leary (51.9%) and Evan Hall (50.0%)... O'Leary leads the team in rebounds (80) and is tied for the team lead in assists (22).
