BROOKINGS, S.D. - The IUPUI basketball team will put a capper on the two-game road trip on Saturday night (Feb. 6) when the Jaguars take on South Dakota State (18-5, 7-2 Summit) inside Frost Arena at 8:00 p.m. Eastern. The game will be broadcast nationally on ESPN3 and can be heard in Central Indiana on 107.5 FM as Morgan Adcock (pxp) calls the action.
IUPUI (11-14, 7-3) had its four-game winning streak snapped at Denver on Thursday night in a game in which it squandered a 15-point second half lead in a 53-51 defeat. IUPUI led 40-25 with just more than 16 minutes to play, but made just 3-of-15 shots to close the game in the loss. Senior
Marcellus Barksdale scored a team-high 14 points and
Jordan Pickett contributed 11 off the bench in the loss. Joe Rosga paced Denver with a game-high 16 points.
With the loss, IUPUI dipped to a third-place tie in the league standings.
IUPUI won the first meeting between IUPUI and SDSU, 74-67 in Indianapolis in early January. SDSU led 49-48 with 10:52 to play before the Jaguars reeled off a 17-3 run to decide the game. Junior #Darell Combs# led the way with 18 points, while Pickett and Nick Osborne combined for 25 off the bench. The win snapped an 11-game losing streak to the Jackrabbits, however IUPUI hasn't won inside Frost Arena since February 2010. SDSU leads the all-time series between the two schools by a 13-11 count. JAGUAR TIDBITSSEVEN AND COUNTING IUPUI's seven Summit League wins are the most since the 2011-12 season when the Jaguars went 7-11 in league play. An eighth win would mark the program's highest league win total since 2010-11 when the Jags finished 12-6 in conference play.
CLOSE CALLS IUPUI's past four outings games have all been decided by two points or less. The Jaguars dropped 53-51 heartbreaker at Denver on Thursday night 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.
DENVER TIDBITS IUPUI led 40-25 at Denver on Thursday night with 16 minutes remaining, but was outscored 28-11 from that point forward, going just 3-of-15 from the field to end the game... sophomore Aaron Brennan made his fourth straight start and contributed a career-high seven boards in the loss... senior Marcellus Barksdale had 14 points (5-of-11 FG, 4-4 FT) and led the team in scoring for just the third time this season... junior Darell Combs was held scoreless on just 0-of-4 shooting in the loss.
FIRST MEETING IUPUI won the first meeting between IUPUI and SDSU, 74-67 in Indianapolis in early January. SDSU led 49-48 with 10:52 to play before the Jaguars reeled off a 17-3 run to decide the game.
Darell Combs led the way with 18 points and Jordan Pickett (14) and Nick Osborne (11) combined for 25 off the bench. The win snapped an 11-game losing streak to the Jackrabbits.
IUPUI hasn't won inside Frost Arena since February 2010.
CAREER DAYS Two Jags had career days last week, beginning with junior Matt O'Leary turning in a career-high 20 points (9-9 FG), 10 rebounds and three assists in the Friday's 69-67 win over Western Illinois. O'Leary was a perfect 9-of-9 from the floor was one attempt away from qualifying for an IUPUI single-game record for field goal percentage.
Only twice in school history has an individual gone 10-of-10 from the field - Jon Avery versus Oral Roberts in 2010 and George Hill versus UMKC in 2006.
Two days later, Jordan Pickett had a career-high 20 points (16 in second half) off the bench in the 73-72 win over North Dakota State. Pickett hit 8-of-11 shots, including the game-winning trey with 1.2 seconds to play.
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 44.5 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 8.7 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 19-5 (10-0 this season) when shooting a higher percentage from the floor than their opposition while going just 2-30 (1-14 this season) when being outshot by opponents.
88 STRAIGHT Senior swingman Marcellus Barksdale has started 88 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 37 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 894 points, 553 boards (11th on all-time list), 265 assists (13th on all-time list) and 153 steals (11th all-time).
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 the opening 10 Summit League games with five players averaging at least nine points per game. Combs leads the crew at 15.1 points per game, followed by Barksdale (11.2 ppg), Pickett (11.0), O'Leary (10.5) and Osborne (9.3).
IUPUI is shooting at efficient 47.6 percent overall and 36.8 percent from three in league play.
MORE LEAGUE TIDBITS In Summit League play, junior Nick Osborne is 7-of-12 (58.3%) from three and shooting 61 percent overall (37-of-61)... senior Marcellus Barksdale (53.9%) and junior Matt O'Leary (53.2%) have also been incredibly efficient from the field, doing the bulk of their damage inside the arc... the Jaguars have also seemingly fixed the turnover woes, sitting at +1.9 turnovers per game in nine league games... that stat has been aided by a high number of steals as the Jags average 8.1 thefts per game in league play.
