BROOKINGS, S.D. - The IUPUI basketball team will begin its final road trip of the regular season on Wednesday night (Feb. 15) when the Jaguars take on South Dakota State (12-16, 5-8 Summit) inside Frost Arena at 7:00 p.m. Central (8 Eastern). IUPUI won the earlier meeting between the two schools, 85-83 in overtime in Indianapolis on Jan. 18. Junior
Ron Patterson led four Jaguars in double-digits with 19 points off the bench and senior
Darell Combs chipped in 18 points in the win.
The Jaguars (11-15, 5-7 Summit) dropped a tight affair to Oral Roberts inside Indiana Farmers Coliseum on Saturday night, 74-68 as the Jags shot just 44 percent from the field and allowed the visiting Golden Eagles to hit 52 percent. Combs led three Jaguars in double-digits with 18 points and junior
Aaron Brennan closed with 14 points and
Kellon Thomas turned in 13. Sophomore
T.J. Henderson contributed nine points on a perfect 3-of-3 shooting from long range off the bench. Aaron Anderson led ORU with 18 points, six rebounds and four assists as the Golden Eagles snapped a five-game losing skid.
"I think we came out slow. I think we missed some shots early," Head Coach
Jason Gardner said. "A little bit of the focus wasn't there. Any time a team shoots that well from the floor it's hard to overcome that."
IUPUI fell into a double-digit hole in the first half and never fully recovered, despite making it a one-possession game late in regulation. However, the Jags never got over the hump and was unable to get a late defensive stop.
South Dakota State has dropped back-to-back road games, including a 91-89 defeat to rival South Dakota last week. Junior forward Reed Tellinghuisen paced the Jackrabbits with 28 points in that loss.
For the year, sophomore Mike Daum (23.8 ppg, 7.9 rpg) ranks among the nation's top mid-major players while Tellinghuisen is second on the team at 11.7 points per game. Southern Utah-transfer A.J. Hess rounds out their double-digit scorers at 11.2 points per contest.
SDSU is 9-2 at Frost Arena this season with the only losses having come to North Dakota State and Omaha in Summit League play. Since then, the Jackrabbits have won three straight on their home floor.
IUPUI is 8-13 all-time against SDSU and 2-7 in the nine prior meetings at Frost Arena.
JAGUAR TIDBITS
NEW FIVE
Out of necessity, Head Coach
Jason Gardner altered his starting five prior to the North Dakota State game and has gone 2-1 since then. Junior
Aaron Brennan replaced the injured
Evan Hall and has averaged 14.3 points and 5.3 rebounds in his lone three starts of the year.
TOP-20 NATIONALLY
IUPUI has climbed to 18th in the country in three-point percentage at 39.8 percent and is 35th nationally with 9.2 threes made per game.
40+
IUPUI has four regulars all hitting better than 40 percent from deep -
Aaron Brennan (21 3's, 48.8%),
Matt O'Leary (54 3's, 46.2%),
T.J. Henderson (26 3's, 44.1%) and
Ron Patterson (55 3's, 41.7%).
50-50-50 CLUB
IUPUI's top three scorers -
Darell Combs (50),
Matt O'Leary (54)
and
Ron Patterson (55)
- have all made at least 50 treys this season. It marks the first time in school history IUPUI has had a trio of player makes 50 treys in a season.
In 2007-08, IUPUI had three players make at least 40 treys that year as Gary Patterson (93), Austin Montgomery (72) and George Hill (49) all hit that mark.
THOMAS AT THE LINE
Senior
Kellon Thomas is ranked No. 2 nationally in free throw percentage at 93.5%, having hit 72-of-77 attempts. He made all 13 of his free throw attempts at Omaha on Wednesday night, marking the fourth most makes in a game without a miss in program history. His 13-of-13 effort was second-best in the program's Division I-era, trailing only a Stephen Thomas 14-of-14 effort against Valparaiso on Dec. 23, 2011.
The Indianapolis-native is on pace to eclipse 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.
Thomas has made 33 straight free throws coming into play tonight.
BRENNAN STREAKING
Junior
Aaron Brennan has scored in double-digits in the Jaguars' last six games, averaging 13.0 points and 4.7 rebounds per game during that span. The Noblesville-native is shooting 28-of-58 (48.3 percent) during that stretch and 11-of-18 (61.1 percent) from beyond the arc.
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 15' floater at the horn vs. 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 vs. NDSU (73-72 / Jan. 31, 2016)
Darell Combs wing J with :01.5 vs. 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. Two others have been close as
Ron Patterson has a 19-point game and
Aaron Brennan has an 18-point 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 16-5 (.762) at home the past two seasons and 21-13 (.618) since Gardner took over the program.
10 TREYS
IUPUI has made at least 10 threes in a game 12 times this season. That said, six of those 12 have come at home, where IUPUI is averaging hitting 10.4 triples per contest at a 44.3 percent clip.
The Jags have made at least 10 threes in five of the past eight games.
COMBS NOTES (@KidDRell1)
-Senior
Darell Combs leads the Jags in scoring (16.5 ppg) 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 47 times in 57 career games and 21 of 26 this season. He's hit for 20-or-more eight times this season and 17 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 1,206 career points (935 at IUPUI) entering tonight's game. Combs needs to average 16.3 points over the final four 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 21 of 26 games this season.
-O'Leary entered this week ranking among The Summit League leaders in eight different categories including field goal percentage (5th), defensive rebounding (6th), three-point percentage (6th), rebounding (9th), blocked shots (13th), assists (14th), three-point field goals (15th) and scoring (16th).
-After scoring just 20-or-more once last season, O'Leary has done it six 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 six times this year.
-O'Leary has started all 57 games of his IUPUI career.
-Achieved a 4.0 GPA during the fall semester. He was voted Academic All-District for the second straight year this year.
-Has 934 collegiate points - 254 in his two years at Loyola and 680 at IUPUI.
K. THOMAS NOTES (@KellonCash5)
-Thomas is averaging 12.3 points per game in Summit League play and has 32 assists against just 11 turnovers.
-After scoring in double-digits just four times in non-conference play, has hit for dubs in eight Summit League games.
-Has 988 points in his collegiate career - 738 at Kent State and 250 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 55-of-132 (41.7 percent) this year.
-Patterson has hit at least three threes 11 times, including a career-high five on two different occasions.
-Patterson leads the Jaguars with 34 steals and 55 threes made.
-His stat line in a 15-point effort at Marquette earlier this season was three 3's and three dunks.
LINEUP TWEAKS
IUPUI has used just three starting lineups this season with seniors
Matt O'Leary,
Darell Combs and
Kellon Thomas having started every game this year.
SMARTY CATS
The Jaguars 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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