INDIANAPOLIS - Coming off back-to-back tough Summit League road losses, the IUPUI basketball team will return to its home floor on Wednesday (Jan. 11) when the Jaguars host Omaha (8-9, 1-3 Summit) at 7:00 p.m.. Wednesday's game can be seen on ESPN3 as Greg Rakestraw (pxp) and IUPUI Hall of Famer Bob Lovell (analyst) are on the call. In addition, the game will 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 outlets and at the Coliseum Box Office. Fans in attendance will be treated to a halftime performance from the Indy Air Bears as part of the evening's entertainment.
The Jags dropped an 85-74 heart breaker at South Dakota on Saturday, relinquishing a seven-point lead over the final six minutes as the Yotes closed on a 22-4 run. IUPUI (7-10, 1-2 Summit) were primed for a key road win after
Darell Combs put the Jags ahead 70-63 with 6:29 to play, but it would be the Jags' final basket of the contest.
"I'm disappointed in how we finished the game. We put ourselves in a position to win a tough road game today and then just kind of gave it away down the stretch. Their defense gave us some problems, but some of the mistakes we made were unforced too," Head Coach
Jason Gardner said. "I think we got away from what had gotten us (the lead) and that came back to bite us.
"Defensively, we reached and fouled too much and that allowed them to get to the free throw line for easy points."
Combs finished with a game-high 27 points while
Matt O'Leary tossed in 14. Sophomore
Evan Hall scored nine of his 11 before halftime.
Omaha is 5-7 away from home this season and 1-3 to start Summit League play with a recent 101-93 win over South Dakota State. Marcus Tyus is the reigning Summit League Co-Player of the Week and comes in averaging 15.1 points per game while shooting 44 percent from three-point range. The high-powered Omaha offense boasts four players averaging double-digits, followed by Tre'Shawn Thurman (13.4 ppg), Zach Jackson (11.6) and Tra-Deon Hollins (10.9 ppg, 6.3 apg, 3.2 spg). The Mavs boast road wins at UC Santa Barbara, Iowa and Cal State Fullerton this season.
IUPUI is 2-6 all-time against Omaha while Gardner is 2-2 in his four meetings. The two teams split the home-and-home series last season with each winning on their home floors.
JAGUAR TIDBITS
USD TAKEAWAYS
-IUPUI led 70-63 at South Dakota with just more than six minutes to play before the host Coyotes closed with a 22-4 run to finish with an 85-74 win. Senior Darell Combs put the Jags in front by scoring 10 straight points but his layup with 6:29 left, but that would be the Jaguars' final field goal of the contest.
-Combs finished with a game-high 27 points (10-19 FG, 5-6 FT) and averages 26 points per game in the three meetings with South Dakota.
-Two days after grabbing a season-high 22 offensive boards at North Dakota State, IUPUI followed by grabbing just five of its own misses against South Dakota. The Jags converted the five offensive boards into eight second chance points.
-IUPUI turned the ball over 17 times and yielded 31 points off turnovers in Saturday's loss at South Dakota.
SUMMIT LEAGUE OPENERS
Following the win over Western Illinois, Head Coach Jason Gardner is now 3-0 in Summit League openers. He previously won at Fort Wayne (63-58) on Jan. 4, 2014 and at South Dakota (77-66) last season.
WINNING THE GLASS
IUPUI has won the glass in six of its last eight games and has a +7.3 rebound margin the past seven games since inserting D.J. McCall in the starting five.
INSIDE THE COLISEUM
IUPUI is 14-2 (.875) at home the past two seasons and 19-10 (.655) since Gardner took over the program.
NO SLIM WINS
All seven of IUPUI's wins this season have been by double-digits with the closest margin being a 12-point win over Eastern Michigan.
On the flip side, the Jags haven't lost many close games either as only four of the 10 defeats coming by fewer than 10 points.
10 TREYS
IUPUI has made at least 10 threes in a game seven times this season. That said, four of those seven have come in the Jaguars' five home games, where IUPUI is averaging hitting 11.2 triples per contest. The Jags are shooting 47.9 percent from deep in home games this season.
COMBS NOTES (@KidDRell1)
-Senior Darell Combs leads the Jags in scoring (18.1 ppg - fourth in The Summit) and was voted preseason First Team All-Summit this season. Combs was a 2nd Team selection following last season.
-The Chicago-native has scored in double-digits 41 times in 48 career games and 15 of 17 this season. He's hit for 20-or-more seven times this season and 16 times in his career.
-Combs scored his 1,000th collegiate point in a 23-point effort in the win over Marian on Dec. 28. Including his 271 points scored at Eastern Michigan, Combs has 1,084 career points (813 at IUPUI) entering tonight's game.
-Combs not only leads the Jags in scoring, but also leads the team in free throws made (57), threes made (37) and minutes (31.3 mpg).
-Combs handed out his 100th career assist in the loss at Illinois.
-Combs capped his junior year with back-to-back 30+ scoring games, becoming the first IUPUI player to do so since George Hill achieved the feat in 2008.
MATT O'LEARY NOTES (@OLeary_15)
-Senior Matt O'Leary is riding a career-best 16 straight games in double-digits, having hit for 10 or more in every game this season except the season-opener at EKU.
-O'Leary has one of the team's two double-doubles this season (Evan Hall has the other) and has two career double-doubles in an IUPUI uniform.
-O'Leary entered this week ranking among The Summit League leaders in nine different categories including field goal percentage (4th), three-point percentage (6th), rebounding (8th), scoring (9th), free throw percentage (12th) and assists (13th).
-After scoring just 20-or-more once last season, O'Leary has already done five times this year, including a career-high 25 at Illinois.
-O'Leary led the Jags in scoring just three times last season, but has already done so five times this year.
-O'Leary has started all 49 games of his IUPUI career.
-The past nine games, O'Leary is shooting 29-of-57 (50.9 percent) from three-point range. He's made a three in all but one game this season.
PATTERSON NOTES (@Buss34)
-Not known as a three-point threat upon transferring from Syracuse, junior Ron Patterson has been lethal from deep to start the season. The Indianapolis-native made just 15-of-71 (21.1 percent) attempts in his two years with the Orange, but is 32-of-83 (38.6 percent) this year.
-Patterson has hit at least three threes six times, including a career-high 5-of-9 in the win over Eastern Michigan.
-Patterson leads the Jaguars with 22 steals.
-His stat line in a 15-point effort at Marquette earlier this season was three 3's and three dunks.
LINEUP TWEAK
For the first time this season, Head Coach Jason Gardner altered his starting five prior to the win over Urbana, inserting sophomore D.J. McCall for junior Ron Patterson. McCall was averaging 9.3 points and 7.0 rebounds per game in the three games leading up to his move to the starting five.
Since moving to the starting five, McCall is averaging 4.0 points, 6.3 rebounds and 2.1 assists per game - the Jags are 4-3 since the lineup change.
SMARTY CATS
The Jaguars recently posted an all-time best semester GPA of 3.09 during the fall. All total, 13 Jaguars posted a GPA of 3.0 or above, led by Matt O'Leary's 4.0 mark.
MAJOR CONFERENCE FOES
IUPUI finished this season 0-4 against major conference foes with losses coming at Michigan, Marquette, Illinois and Northwestern. The Jags dropped those four games by an average margin of 16.8 points per game - the slimmest margin being an eight-point loss at Illinois.
CENTURY MARKS
Just before Christmas, the IUPUI offense exploded, scoring 100-or-more points in back-to-back games for the first time since January 1995. The 100 points games in the wins over Urbana and Southern Utah are the first 100-point games since Gardner took over three seasons ago and was the first 100-point game since scoring 112 against Judson on Jan. 2, 2014.
During that span, IUPUI hit 75-of-121 (62 percent) from the floor and 30-of-57 (52.6 percent) from beyond the arc. In addition, the Jags had 49 assists on 75 buckets.
SHOOTING 50
IUPUI is now 13-1 (.929) when shooting 50 percent or better under Gardner and 28-7 (.800) when outshooting the opposition.
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