TULSA, Okla. - The IUPUI basketball team will head to Tulsa on Saturday (Jan. 14) seeking break a number of skids when the Jaguars face Oral Roberts (5-13, 1-3 Summit) inside the Mabee Center. Tip time is set for 3:00 p.m. Central (4 Eastern).
Saturday's game will be aired on ESPN3 and can be heard on 97.5 Fox Sports FM, 1260 WNDE and the iHeartRadio app as Morgan Adcock (pxp) is on the call.
IUPUI (7-11, 1-3 Summit) comes in looking to snap a three-game skid, having most recently dropped a home game to Omaha inside the Coliseum on Wednesday night, 79-71. Sophomore
Evan Hall led the way with a career-high 21 points, 11 rebounds and three blocked shots, hitting 9-of-11 shots on the interior. Senior
Darell Combs added 13 and
Matt O'Leary scored 11, all in the second half.
"We just need to get back to the things that made us successful earlier in the season," IUPUI Head Coach
Jason Gardner said. "I think we've got some guys who are in a little bit of a slump right now, but I'm confident that they'll snap out of it. It's a long season.
"It starts with getting the first (win) and then hopefully we can get a little momentum and rattle off a few in a row. We were hitting shots earlier in the year and have gone a little cold lately. We'll be fine though. We're a veteran group and I'm confident in our guys and in what we're capable of doing."
Combs continues to lead the Jaguars in scoring at 17.8 points per game while O'Leary checks in at 14.6 points and 6.6 rebounds per game while hitting 44.4 percent from three-point range. IUPUI has outrebounded opponents in seven of the past nine games, posting a 6.6 rebound margin during that stretch. Sophomore guard
D.J. McCall (5.6 rpg) has helped in that area as he, O'Leary and Hall combined to average 18 caroms per contest.
Oral Roberts has been a prime nemesis for the Jaguars, having defeated IUPUI 10 straight times dating back to 2010. IUPUI hasn't won in Tulsa since February 2004, having dropped 10 straight contests inside the Mabee Center. Gardner is 0-5 against Oral Roberts and it's the lone Summit League team he has yet to defeat in his first two-plus years on the job.
Oral Roberts is paced by junior center Albert Owens (15.8 ppg, 5.7 rpg) and sophomore guard Kris Martin (14.3 ppg, 42.7 3FG%). Senior guard Jalen Bradley (14.0 ppg, 4.3 apg) rounds out Head Coach Scott Sutton's double-digit scorers. The Golden Eagles are coming off an impressive 94-88 win over South Dakota State, keyed by Owens' 24 points and nine boards and a 20-point night from Martin.
JAGUAR TIDBITS
HALL OF A NIGHT
Sophomore Evan Hall is coming off his best game of his collegiate career, pumping in a career-high 21 points and 11 rebounds in Wednesday's loss to Omaha. It marked the second double-double of Hall's career as the 6-foot-6 forward hit 9-of-11 shots and also matched his career-high with three blocked shots.
Six of Hall's 11 boards came off the offensive glass and he matched his career-high with 27 minutes played.
OMAHA TAKEAWAYS
-The loss to Omaha was the Jaguars' first home loss of the season, dropping the Jags to 5-1 in Indy this season.
-The Jags led 57-52 midway through the second half, but collapsed late, falling by eight to the Mavs.
-Senior Kellon Thomas played a career-high 36 minutes and finished with 10 points and four assists.
-IUPUI had played in double-digits for just the fourth time this season - led by Hall's 21 and followed by Combs (13), O'Leary (11), Thomas (10) and Patterson (10).
-IUPUI won the glass (44-42), points in the paint (44-32), points off turnovers (20-18) and second chance points (17-11), but was hindered by a 41 percent shooting night while Omaha shot 47 percent overall.
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 seven of its last nine games and has a 6.6 rebound margin the past eight games since inserting D.J. McCall in the starting five.
INSIDE THE COLISEUM
IUPUI is 14-3 (.824) at home the past two seasons and 19-11 (.633) 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 five of the 11 defeats have come 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' six home games, where IUPUI is averaging hitting 10 triples per contest. The Jags are shooting 45 percent from deep in home games this season.
COMBS NOTES (@KidDRell1)
-Senior Darell Combs leads the Jags in scoring (17.8 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 42 times in 49 career games and 16 of 18 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 1,097 career points (826 at IUPUI) entering tonight's game. Combs needs to average 14.5 points over the final 12 regular season games to reach 1,000 in his IUPUI career.
-Combs not only leads the Jags in scoring, but also leads the team in free throws made (58), threes made (39) and minutes (31.5 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 17 straight games in double-digits, having hit for 10 or more in every game this season except the season-opener at EKU.
-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 50 games of his IUPUI career.
-Achieved a 4.0 GPA during the fall semester.
-The past 10 games, O'Leary is shooting 29-of-61 (47.5 percent) from three-point range. He's made a three in all but two games 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 34-of-89 (38.2 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 24 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 3.8 points, 6.5 rebounds and 2.1 assists per game - the Jags are 4-4 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.
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