YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio - The IUPUI basketball team continued its hot play on Friday night (Feb. 19) as the Jaguars gutted out a 72-70 road win at Youngstown State to extend its current winning streak to three. IUPUI played without senior guard
Jaylen Minnett and was forced to play the final six-plus minutes without
Marcus Burk, who fouled out.
The win snapped the Jaguars' eight-game losing streak to Youngstown State and saw them overcome a 14-point deficit to do so. IUPUI (8-8, 7-8 HL) went ahead on an
Azariah Seay pull-up jumper with 1:47 to play and withstood the Penguins late challenge to seal the win. YSU's Darius Quisenberry misfired on a contested three as time expired, sending an emotional Jaguars squad cheering its way to the Beeghly Center exit.
"First off, I just want to applaud our guys with how hard they played. They fought through some tough calls and fought through not having the top two scorers in the conference on the floor at the end of the game," head coach
Byron Rimm II said. "Guys who normally don't play stepped up big for us. I am so happy for Bakari and Azariah, who has taken a back seat behind Burk and Jaylen all season.
"The entire team did their job today and I'm so happy for them. They have been great all season in the classroom and working hard on the court and they were rewarded tonight."
Burk was nothing short of dazzling with 24 points on 8-of-14 shooting to go along with six boards and four assists. However, it was a full team effort as IUPUI outscored YSU (13-11, 8-11 HL) by a 15-5 margin after Burk fouled out with 6:57 to play.
Seay matched his season-high with 14 points and
Mike DePersia had a career-high 13 points on 5-of-7 shooting. Senior
Elyjah Goss had his streak of six straight double-doubles snapped as he closed with eight points and 14 boards and freshman
Bakari LaStrap had six points and three assists in his first career start.
IUPUI trailed 65-57 when Burk was whistled for his fifth, but immediately began chipping away. The Jags went on an immediate 10-0 run, which included a go-ahead three from
Nathan McClure with 3:49 remaining.
Quisenberry fired back with a go-ahead trey for the Penguins with 2:29 left, but Seay answered with his biggest bucket of the night just inside two minutes. After LaStrap picked off a Quisenberry pass, the Jags pushed the lead to 71-68 with 60 seconds to play when Goss was fouled trying to putback a Seay miss. Goss then authored a clean steal of Naz Bohannon near midcourt, giving the Jags the chance to extend to a two possession lead.
A pair of missed free throws kept the door open for the hosts and they extended the game when Bohannon scored followed a Garrett Covington missed three. DePersia was fouled after receiving the inbounds pass and split the two attempts before Quisenberry came up empty at the buzzer.
"It felt very good to get a win on the road versus a team who was on a five-game winning streak. We faced a lot of adversity without our two top scorers, but we came together as a team and stuck together and found a way to win," Seay said. "A win like this without our top guys gives us tremendous confidence that we can compete and win without them.
"We'll definitely be happy to get them back and continue to build off this great momentum."
That said, the Jaguars rally from eight down in the final six-plus minutes was its second most impressive comeback of the night.
IUPUI was down 31-17 with 4:47 left before halftime and looked downright lethargic as fouls were piling up and YSU was sawing through the its defense. However, the three-point line energized the Jags, capped by three Burk makes in the final three-plus minutes as IUPUI closed the half with a 20-3 run. Seay initiated the run with a trey and then Burk connected off a LaStrap assist.
After IUPUI forced a miss, Seay drilled a jumper from just inside the three-point line. Burk closed the half with a pair of threes in the final 44 seconds, the second of which came in transition off a LaStrap feed.
IUPUI finished 8-of-17 (47.1 percent) from three, despite the program's all-time leader sidelined in a gray sweatsuit on Friday. The Jags also outrebounded YSU 35-33 and leaked out for some easy buckets against the Penguins' full-court press, tallying 28 fast break points.
Quisenberry led YSU with 20 points and seven rebounds and Covington and Bohannon added 16 each.
IUPUI and Youngstown State will cap the regular season on Saturday (Feb. 20) when they square off inside Beeghly Center at 5:00 p.m. in a game broadcast on ESPN3.
