IPFW Topples I-69 Rival IUPUI

Thursday, January 5

Memorial Coliseum

7:00 p.m.

Purdue Fort Wayne

9-6, 3-3Summit

IUPUI

8-9, 2-3Summit

IUPUI

IPFW

Photo by: Lucas Carter

1/5/2012 10:16:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score

FORT WAYNE, Ind. - The IPFW Mastodons toppled Summit League and I-69 rival IUPUI on Thursday evening, using a deep bench and another 20-point scoring output from Frank Gaines to topple the Jaguars 72-67.

Gaines scored a team-high 22 points, while Mario Hines and Justin Jordan scored 14 and 12, each off of the bench, as the Mastodon reserves scored 37 points. Over the last two games, IPFW's bench has out-scored its opponents' 77-18, while IUPUI's bench personnel scored just eight combined points.

Antwaun Boyd narrowly missed double figures with nine points, while dishing out a game-high five assists. Gaines and Boyd added six rebounds as IPFW had seven players with four or more rebounds, with the 'Dons out-rebounding the Jaguars 40-29.

With the win, IPFW improves to 9-6 on the season, while evening its Summit League record at 3-3, while IUPUI falls to 8-9 overall and 2-3 in league play.

IPFW trailed for just 25 total seconds in the game; however, neither team would led by more than three for the first nine minutes of the game. An Isaiah McCray three-pointer with 10:26 to play in the first half pushed the lead to six at 18-12, but the strong IUPUI squad fought back to tie the score at 21 apiece four minutes later.

The Mastodons then erupted, out-scoring IUPUI 12-1 over the next four minutes to lead by 11, and took a ten-point, 37-27 lead into the locker room at halftime after a Gaines lay-up.

Gaines opened the scoring in the second half with a lay-in a minute and a half into the stanza, giving IPFW its largest lead of the game at 12.

The 'Dons led by 11 at 47-36 before the Jaguars showed their fight, using a 12-4 run to climb to within three at 51-48. IPFW quickly responded to seeing its lead cut to a single possession with an 8-0 run capped by a three-point play by Boyd, increasing the lead once again to 11.

The Jaguars kept chipping away at the lead, and after an Alex Young three-pointer with 18 seconds to play, closed to within three at 68-65; however, IPFW iced the game by making all four of its charity stripe attempts in the final 15 seconds to take the battle of the Summit League schools by a 72-67 final score.

IPFW made 26-of-48 (54.2 percent) shots from the field, the program's second consecutive game shooting better than 50 percent for a game, while holding the Jaguars to 39.7 percent (25-of-63) from the field, and 6-of-20 (30.0) from long range.

The Mastodons return to action for their third game in a five-day span when the team plays host to the Leathernecks of Western Illinois University in a 2:30 p.m. tip-off at the Memorial Coliseum in the second game of a women's/men's doubleheader.

~ Feel the Rumble ~