MACOMB, Ill. - The IUPUI basketball team will cap a quick two-game road swing on Saturday night (Jan. 28) when the Jaguars square off with Western Illinois (6-13, 3-5 Summit) at 7:00 p.m. Central (8 Eastern) in Macomb. The game will be broadcast 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.
The game will open the second half of Summit League play as IUPUI (9-13, 3-5 Summit) comes in seeking to snap a two-game skid. The Jaguars were dumped at Fort Wayne 103-73 on Wednesday night (Jan. 25) to cap the opening eight games of league play. The quartet of
Aaron Brennan,
Evan Hall,
T.J. Henderson and
Ron Patterson all finished with a team-high 11 points in the loss. While the offense posted a respectable output, including hitting 8-of-20 (40 percent) from three-point range, the defense continued to struggle in league play. The Jags allowed the opposition to shoot better than 50 percent from the floor for the sixth time in eight league games and fourth straight game.
"We've got to get better defensively," IUPUI Head Coach
Jason Gardner said. "We've got to do a better job of getting in a stance and taking pride at the defensive end. That's what wins ballgames.
"We've got to focus on getting stops and that will translate into getting opportunities to score in transition. We're capable of being a good defensive team, but it's a matter of going out and executing."
Senior
Darell Combs has hit the skids of late, but continues to lead the Jaguars at 16.5 points per game. Senior
Matt O'Leary is averaging 14.0 points and 6.5 rebounds per game while shooting 45.3 percent from three-point range. Patterson has led the Jaguars in scoring in each of the past three games and is tallying 9.5 points per game for the year, while connecting on 41.1 percent from deep. Fifth-year senior
Kellon Thomas is averaging 9.1 points per game and has a team-high 66 assists from his guard spot.
Western Illinois has dropped four straight since opening Summit League play 3-1. Garret Covington (19.4 ppg) and Mike Miklusak (14.6 ppg, 9.1 rpg) lead the WIU attack as both are shooting 38 percent from three-point range. As a team, WIU is shooting 38.4 percent from deep, but allowing teams to hit 42.2 percent from outside the arc. Head Coach Billy Wright's team has league wins over Fort Wayne, South Dakota State and Oral Roberts at the midpoint of the season.
IUPUI won the earlier meeting against WIU, 89-71 in Indianapolis on New Year's Eve. The senior trio of Combs, O'Leary and Thomas tallied 63 of the team's 89 points in that win, led by Combs' 28.
JAGUAR TIDBITS
FOUR STRAIGHT
IUPUI has allowed its last four foes to shoot better than 50 percent from the field, going 2-2 in that span. In league play, opponents are shooting 52 percent from the floor against the Jags, having gone for 50 percent or better in six of eight games.
POWER OUTAGE
IUPUI's duo of Darell Combs and Matt O'Leary has experienced a power outage of late, as both have held under double-digits in each of the Jags past two games (both losses). IUPUI's home loss to Denver last Saturday was the first time this season neither of the two were in dubs.
Four days later in Fort Wayne, the pair scored seven and nine, respectively.
40-40-40 CLUB
IUPUI's top three scorers - Darell Combs (42), Matt O'Leary (43) and Ron Patterson (46) - have all made at least 40 treys this season. It marks the first time since 2007-08 that IUPUI has had three players make at least 40 threes in a season. That year, Gary Patterson (93), Austin Montgomery (72) and George Hill (49) all hit at least 40.
IUPUI has never had three different players make at least 50 threes in the same season.
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 (16.5 ppg - sixth 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 53 career games and 17 of 22 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 1,139 career points (867 at IUPUI) entering tonight's game. Combs needs to average 16.6 points over the final eight 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 22 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 done it 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 done so five times this year.
-O'Leary has started all 54 games of his IUPUI career.
-Achieved a 4.0 GPA during the fall semester.
-Has 881 collegiate points - 254 in his two years at Loyola and 627 at IUPUI.
K.THOMAS NOTES (@KellonCash5)
-Thomas is averaging 12.4 points per game and shooting 42 percent from three-point range in Summit League play. He also leads the team with 22 assists (against just seven turnovers) in league play.
-The Indianapolis-native leads the team in free throw percentage at 53-of-58 (.914) 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 eight Summit League games.
-Has 939 points in his collegiate career - 738 at Kent State and 201 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 46-of-112 (41.1 percent) this year.
-Patterson has hit at least three threes nine times, including a career-high 5-of-9 in the win over Eastern Michigan.
-Patterson leads the Jaguars with 29 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.
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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