IU Indy Athletics

INDIANAPOLIS - The IU Indianapolis men's basketball team opened up the brand new James T. Morris Arena in style as the Jaguars cruised to a 113-76 win over Miami Middletown in front of a sellout crowd of 4,000 attendees on Monday (Nov. 2). Junior Peyton Heiss had a game-high 20 points and seven rebounds and classmate Kameron Tinsley finished with 17 points and nine rebounds, while also scoring the first basket inside the facility with a two-handed dunk. Gus Etchison added 15 points and Manasseh Stackhouse and Billy Smith tallied 13 and 12, respectively.

Tayvon Smith led Miami-Middletown (1-1) with 16 points off the bench. 

"Yeah, first off, the atmosphere was great having local schools out there was a lot of fun for our players. You know, I don't know approximately how many were there, but it was a fun environment and to actually play in the new arena, it was great," head coach Ben Howlett said. "That's something that, you know, I personally have looked forward to since I took this job and I know our players have looked forward to playing here.

"We gotta be better. You know, I can take missing shots and I can take, you know, some of the mental mistakes. Sometimes in the first games, guys get sped up, but I can't take not winning 50-50 balls and guys being flat-footed out there."

The Jaguars jumped out to a quick 4-0 lead in front of thousands of frenzied elementary school kids and never looked back, going in front by double digits less than seven minutes into the game. Heiss fueled a 14-1 run with back-to-back threes, pushing the lead to 25-8 when Antoine Arnett dropped in a layup at the 12:17 mark. Some sloppy play late in the half allowed the visiting ThunderHawks to get the margin back to eight before the Jags closed the half with nine straight points to build a 54-37 lead. 

IU Indy (1-0) proceeded to score the first eight points of the second half, thanks to Heiss and Tinsley treys and led by 20-plus the rest of the day. 

The Jaguars shot just 48 percent from the floor and 11-of-37 (29.7 percent) from three, but only had two practices in the building prior to Monday's opener. Defensively, the Jags limited Middletown to 38 percent overall and less than 27 percent from three. The Jaguars also forced 25 turnovers and converted them into 31 points off turnovers and a 23-6 edge in fast break points. 

Heiss played a team-high 24 minutes as 10 different Jaguars played at least 12 minutes. The Mount Vernon Nazarene-transfer also finished with six assists and four steals as the Jaguars delivered 28 assists on 40 field goals.

"I think our offense is built around passing and spacing. Guys I'm playing with like Gus who are getting downhill, teammates are getting me open shots," Heiss said. "That's kind of the reason that I'm going to have a good season this year, is just from the other guys around me."

Reece Hagy had four points and five assists and was limited to just nine minutes due to foul trouble. Markus Pastorcic-Straun and Trey Drexler each scored nine points and Arnett finished with eight. 

For Heiss and Co., the first game jitters wore off pretty quickly inside the new digs. 

"For sure, there definitely was," Heiss said of his IU Indy debut. "I feel once that ball gets tipped up, they all kind of go away and it's back to just the things we've been working on since June."

The Jaguars will continue the three-game homestand on Saturday (Nov. 7) when they host UT Martin at 5:00 p.m. on MyINDY-TV.