Balanced 'Dons Snap Skid vs. Oakland

Wednesday, February 20

Fort Wayne, Ind.

7 p.m.

Purdue Fort Wayne

13-16, 6-9SL

Oakland

15-14, 10-5SL

Oakland

IPFW

Photo by: Lucas Carter

2/20/2013 6:41:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score

BOX SCORE (.pdf) | BOX SCORE

FORT WAYNE, Ind. - The IPFW Mastodons saw five players reach double-figure scoring, led by Frank Gaines' 17, as IPFW snapped a 10-game series losing skid to the Oakland Grizzlies with a 77-71 win at the Memorial Coliseum on Wednesday evening.

Gaines went for 17, while Luis Jacobo scored 15, Joe Reed 14, Joe Edwards 11, and Mario Hines 10. In all, 18 of IPFW's 27 baskets were assisted, as Pierre Bland and Jacobo each dished out four. Jacobo grabbed an IPFW-career-high nine rebounds, as IPFW out-rebounded Oakland 35-to-33.

IPFW jumped ahead quickly, leading by five at 12-7 after a Gaines three-point basket; however, the Grizzlies ran off a 16-5 run to lead by six, at 23-17 with 10:59 to play.

The Mastodons, facing their biggest deficit of the game, immediately ran off eight straight points, capped by a pair of Gaines free throws, and a 19-2 overall run that gave IPFW an 11-point lead at 36-25 with 5:10 to play after a Hines lay-in.

That Hines basket would be the last IPFW would score in the period, with Oakland running off eight straight to close the gap to 11 at the break.

Neither team could get an offensive foothold early in the second half, with the margin fluctuating between one and six points in favor of IPFW for the first 14 minutes of the second half, before Oakland tied the game at 62 on a Bader lay-in, and a possession later took its first lead of the second half on another Bader lay-up at 64-62 with 5:30 left in the game.

The Grizzlies led by one at 65-64 with 3:56 left in the game; however, the Mastodon defense dug their ground, and held Oakland scoreless for a 3:25 span, at which the 'Dons scored a dozen, to push ahead by 11 at 76-65 after a pair of Gaines free throws. Oakland out-scored IPFW 6-1 over the final 31 seconds, but the damage had been done in the IPFW win.

IPFW went 27-of-62 from the field (43.5%), 8-of-23 (34.8%) on 3's, and 15-of-21 (71.4%) from the charity stripe, while Oakland hit 47.2 percent (25-of-53) of its shots from the field, 5-of-20 (25.0%) from long range, and 16-of-29 (55.2%) on free throws.

Oakland was led by Bader who scored 23 points, while Corey Petros scored 15 and Drew Valentine 12 with a team-high 12 rebounds.

The Mastodons return to action on Saturday evening when the squad hosts Bowling Green in the Ramada Worldwide Bracketbuster game at 7 p.m. at the Memorial Coliseum.

~ Feel the Rumble ~