HIGHLAND HEIGHTS, Ky. - The IUPUI basketball team completed a two-game sweep at Northern Kentucky on Saturday night (Jan. 16), edging the Norse 65-63 inside BB&T Arena. Senior
Marcus Burk pumped in a game-high 23 points and
Jaylen Minnett contributed 18 points as the Jaguars connected on 11-of-30 three-point attempts in the victory.
NKU's Marques Warrick missed a potential game-winning wing three as time expired, capping a second straight wild affair.
"I thought that as a team we're learning how to play hard and just learning how to win as a team," head coach
Byron Rimm II said. "We had some guys step up and hit some key shots.
Mike DePersia made a key shot and some free throws and Nate (McClure) and AZ and Elyjah had a big putback and some of those other guys made plays when we needed them.
"Teams are going to focus on Jaylen and Burk and those guys' opportunities are going to come to step up and make plays. It's a big difference from last year. Guys are cheering each other on and you can see us slowly becoming a good basketball team."
After David Bohm put Northern Kentucky in front 61-60 with a three-point play with 4:18 left, the Jags mimicked their effort from the day prior and came up with key plays in key moments down the stretch. It began when Burk collected a steal and then followed up a Minnett miss with a putback with 3:48 remaining to put the Jags in front. After the team traded multiple empty trips,
Elyjah Goss came up with his biggest contribution of the night when he followed up an
Azariah Seay miss with 59 seconds to play, giving the Jags a 64-61 lead.
The Jags locked in defensively from there as Seay drew the assignment to contest a Warrick jumper and then rebounded a Trevon Faulkner attempt with 25 seconds left.
"AZ's one of our better defenders one-on-one. He's long and he's athletic and I really think having he and Bobby and Jaylen work on (Warrick) defensively really tired him out," Rimm said. "I don't know - I'd like to think it played a role in him missing that last shot."
NKU, which had committed just four personal fouls at that point, was forced to spend three fouls to send the Jags to the foul line. DePersia hit the all important first foul shot of the 1-and-1 to give the Jags a two possession lead with 19 seconds left.
Warrick made things interesting by spinning his way through traffic for a layup with 6.9 seconds left and
Bobby Harvey was fouled after the Jags nearly botched the ensuing inbounds under NKU's bucket. Harvey missed the front of the 1-and-1 with 4.9 seconds left, but Warrick was well off the mark on a contested jumper at the final horn.
IUPUI held NKU to 43 percent shooting for the game and 4-of-13 (30.8 percent) from three-point range. The Jags also forced 18 NKU turnovers and converted them into 21 points, including 17 fast break points.
While Burk connected on 9-of-15 shots, including three threes, he also provided six boards and a career-high six steals. He and Minnett drew the yeoman's share of the NKU defensive attention, allowing for open looks from a cast of Jaguar role players.
Seay finished with six points off the bench while Goss had six points and five rebounds. McClure, who made his second straight start, added five points and DePersia closed with four. Faulkner led NKU with 16 points and Bohm tallied seven of his 12 points before halftime. Adrian Nelson added seven points and 13 rebounds for the Norse while Warrick was limited to nine points on 3-of-11 shooting.
Minnett and Burk supplied nearly all of the Jaguars' offense in the first half with the degree of difficulty of their makes increasing as the game progressed. While Minnett drilled his share of contested shots, he capped the half with a twisting left-handed layup to give the Jags a 32-26 lead at the break. The NKU defense tried to deny and force the ball out of both their hands throughout the second half, routinely running double teams at both snipers. Minnett responded with four assists against just one turnover as the duo attempted just 12 second half shots after firing 19 attempts before the break.
IUPUI, which hadn't won in Highland Heights ever coming into the week, claimed a second victory in a just more than 24-hour span by a combined seven points.
IUPUI will return to action next week when the Jaguars host #HLMBB preseason favorite Wright State in a two-game series. Games will tip at noon on both Friday (Jan. 22) and Saturday (Jan. 23) inside Indiana Farmers Coliseum and both contests will be broadcast on ESPN3 as Greg Rakestraw (pxp) and IUPUI Hall of Famer Bob Lovell (analyst) describe the action.
