FORT WAYNE, Ind. - The IUPUI basketball team will close the first half of Summit League play on Wednesday night (Jan. 25) when the Jags face Fort Wayne (14-7, 3-4 Summit) inside the Gates Center at 7:30 p.m.. The game will be aired on 97.5 Fox Sports FM, 1260 WNDE and the iHeartRadio app as Morgan Adcock (pxp) is on the call.
IUPUI (9-12, 3-4) missed an opportunity to get above .500 in Summit League play with a 78-74 home loss to Denver on Saturday. Senior
Kellon Thomas missed a potential go-ahead three in the closing minute after the Jags had trailed by six with just more than a minute to play. Junior
Ron Patterson scored a team-high 13 points off the bench and
Aaron Brennan added 12 as the IUPUI bench scored 33 of the team's 74 points. IUPUI led by nine early in the second half, but had to attempt to come-from-behind in the closing minute.
"I thought we got good looks in the second half, but we just missed them," Head Coach
Jason Gardner said. "You can credit Denver as far as turning the pressure up, and I think we got a little bit rushed."
After cruising at home in the season's first six home games, IUPUI struggled in the past two with an overtime win over South Dakota State and Saturday's defeat to Denver. The Jags have struggled defensively since the start of league play, allowing foes to shoot 51 percent overall and 40.8 percent from three-point range.
Fort Wayne, the league's preseason favorite, boasts an electric trio of Mo Evans (18.5 ppg, 5.5 apg), Bryson Scott (17.1 ppg, 5.1 rpg) and John Konchar (13.9 ppg, 8.4 rpg) as four of the team's five starters score better than double-digits. Sophomore Kason Harrell (10.6 ppg) rounds out that group.
The Mastodons are currently No. 24 in the CollegeInsider.com Mid-Major Top 25.
JAGUAR TIDBITS
CLOSING THE FIRST HALF
IUPUI will close the first half of Summit League play at Fort Wayne on Wednesday night, needing a win to get back to .500 in league play. The Mastodons are in the same boat, also needing a win to return to .500 at the turn.
IUPUI is 2-2 with wins over South Dakota State and Western Illinois at home thus far and owns a road win at Oral Roberts thus far.
THE FIRST TIME
IUPUI'S home loss to Denver on Saturday was the first time this season neither Darell Combs or Matt O'Leary were in double-digits. The Jags got 33 of 74 points from the bench as Ron Patterson scored a team-high 13 and Aaron Brennan scored 12.
PATTERSON'S CAREER NIGHT
Junior Ron Patterson tallied a career-high 19 points (7-12 FG, 4-9 3's) in last Wednesday's win over South Dakota State, scoring 14 points in the first half. He matched his career-high with 31 minutes played and hit a flurry of first half threes to help IUPUI build an early nine point lead.
COMBS AT THE HORN
Senior Darell Combs capped an 18-point performance against SDSU by knocking in the game-winner with 1.5 seconds left in overtime. The Chicago-native hit a pull-up 18-footer from the right wing to send the Jaguars to an 85-83 win.
Ironically, Combs had two other 'buzzer beaters' during the game, hitting a 25-footer from the right wing at the end of the first half and then hit a 30-footer from the top of the key as the shot clock was expiring with 3:25 to play.
FOUR GAME-WINNERS
Combs became the fourth Jaguar to connect for a game-winner since Gardner's hire three years ago. Here are the others:
P.J. Boutte runner at the horn versus Ball State (71-69 / Nov. 22, 2014)
Marcellus Barksdale layup at the horn at IPFW (84-82 / Jan. 23, 2016)
Jordan Pickett wing 3 with :02 against NDSU (73-72 / Jan. 31, 2016)
Darell Combs wing J with :01.5 against SDSU (85-83 / Jan. 18, 2017)
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.
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.
INSIDE THE COLISEUM
IUPUI is 15-4 (.789) at home the past two seasons and 20-12 (.625) since Gardner took over the program.
10 TREYS
IUPUI has made at least 10 threes in a game nine times this season. That said, five of those nine have come at home, where IUPUI is averaging hitting 10.1 triples per contest. The Jags are shooting 43.3 percent from deep in home games this season.
COMBS NOTES (@KidDRell1)
-Senior Darell Combs leads the Jags in scoring (17.0 ppg - fifth 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 43 times in 52 career games and 17 of 21 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 1,132 career points (861 at IUPUI) entering tonight's game. Combs needs to average 15.4 points over the final nine regular season games to reach 1,000 in his IUPUI career.
-Combs hit his 100th career three against Denver on Jan. 21.
-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 had a streak of 19 straight games in double-digits snapped with a 9-point, 9-rebound effort against Denver on Jan. 21. He's scored in double-digits in 19 of 21 games this season.
-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 53 games of his IUPUI career.
-Achieved a 4.0 GPA during the fall semester.
-Has 872 collegiate points - 245 in his two years at Loyola and 627 at IUPUI.
K.THOMAS NOTES (@KellonCash5)
-Thomas is averaging 12.9 points per game and shooting 47.6 percent from three-point range in Summit League play. He also leads the team with 18 assists (against just five turnovers) in league play.
-The Indianapolis-native leads the team in free throw percentage at 50-of-55 (.909) 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 six of the first seven Summit League games.
-Has 930 points in his collegiate career - 738 at Kent State and 192 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 43-of-107 (40.2 percent) this year.
-Patterson has hit at least three threes seven times, including a career-high 5-of-9 in the win over Eastern Michigan.
-Patterson leads the Jaguars with 28 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 5.9 points, 5.9 rebounds and 2.0 assists per game - the Jags are 6-5 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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