INDIANAPOLIS - After a much needed road win at Oral Roberts on Saturday, the IUPUI basketball team will open a two-game homestand on Wednesday night (Jan. 18) when the Jaguars host South Dakota State (8-12, 1-4 Summit) at 7:00 p.m. inside Indiana Farmers Coliseum. Wednesday's game will be broadcast on ESPN3 as Greg Rakestraw (pxp) and 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 through TicketMaster outlets and at the Coliseum box office.
IUPUI (8-11, 2-3 Summit) used a career-high 21-point effort from sophomore
D.J. McCall to win at Oral Roberts on Saturday, 91-85. McCall, who came in averaging fewer than two points per game to start Summit League play, ripped off 10 points in the opening few minutes to stake the Jags to an early lead. He later knocked in two key treys in the second half to accompany six rebounds and five assists. Senior
Matt O'Leary tossed in 17 points, five boards and five assists and
Kellon Thomas added 15 points, including a perfect 6-of-6 from the foul line.
"I thought it was good that we came out with a lot of energy and kind of jumped on them early," Head Coach
Jason Gardner said. "That was important that we didn't get into a big hole and then have to play from behind on the road.
"I thought D.J. was absolutely awesome today, but honestly, everyone contributed today. Every guy that stepped foot on the court for us today played a role in the win and that's what we have to do to be successful. When we use our depth like that, we can be one of the best teams in this league."
Junior
Ron Patterson finished with 12 points and sophomore
Evan Hall had seven points and a team-high eight rebounds. The Jaguars' top scorer,
Darell Combs, was limited to eight points on 4-of-11 shooting.
South Dakota State boasts one of the league's top players in sophomore forward Mike Daum (22.6 ppg, 7.7 rpg, .521 FG%). The Jackrabbits have two others averaging in double-digits in Southern Utah-transfer A.J. Hess (10.3 ppg) and junior swingman Reed Tellinghuisen (11.7 ppg). SDSU has dominated the series with the Jaguars, having won 13 of the 20 meetings between the two schools. IUPUI is 5-4 in the nine meetings in Indianapolis and beat SDSU at Indiana Farmers Coliseum last season, 74-67.
Wednesday's game will include a ton of freebies and promotions, primarily benefiting IUPUI students. As part of its sponsorship, Indiana Members Credit Union will provide giveaways in the lobby before the game and a chance to win gift cards throughout the game. In addition, the Tyler is giving away the chance for one lucky student to win FREE rent for a year.
JAGUAR TIDBITS
DJ SPINS 21
After scoring just seven points in the first four Summit League games, sophomore
D.J. McCall turned in 21 points (8-12 FG, 3-5 3's, 2-3 FT) in Saturday's win at Oral Roberts. McCall scored 10 points before the game's first media timeout and drilled three threes in the game after having made just seven in his career prior.
SINCE THE START OF LEAGUE PLAY...
...IUPUI has had five different players score 20 or more in a game;
Darell Combs,
Matt O'Leary,
Kellon Thomas,
D.J. McCall and
Evan Hall all have hit for 20-or-more in a Summit League game.
STREAKS SNAPPED
Saturday's win snapped a 10-game losing streak to Oral Roberts and was IUPUI's first victory in Tulsa since 2004.
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 eight of its last 10 games and has a +7.1 rebound margin the past nine 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 eight wins this season have been by double-digits with the closest margin being Saturday's 91-85 win at Oral Roberts.
10 TREYS
IUPUI has made at least 10 threes in a game eight times this season. That said, four of those eight have come in the Jaguars' six home games, where IUPUI is averaging hitting 10.2 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 50 career games and 16 of 19 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 1,105 career points (834 at IUPUI) entering tonight's game. Combs needs to average 15.1 points over the final 11 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.
O'LEARY NOTES (@OLeary_15)
-Senior
Matt O'Leary is riding a career-best 18 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 51 games of his IUPUI career.
-Achieved a 4.0 GPA during the fall semester.
-Has 853 collegiate points - 245 in his two years at Loyola and 608 at IUPUI.
K.THOMAS NOTES (@KellonCash5)
-Thomas is averaging 13.6 points per game and shooting 57 percent from three-point range in Summit League play. He also leads the team with 13 assists in league play.
-The Indianapolis-native leads the team in free throw percentage at 46-of-51 (.902) and is chasing the school record mark of .914, set by Gary Patterson in 2007-08. Only two players, Patterson and Nick David, have single-season marks of 90 percent or better.
-After scoring in double-digits just four times in non-conference play, has hit for dubs in four of the first five Summit League games.
-Has 908 points in his collegiate career - 738 at Kent State and 170 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 36-of-92 (39.1 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 5.6 points, 6.3 rebounds and 2.4 assists per game - the Jags are 5-4 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.
Click here to see full IUPUI game notes
