Men's Basketball Hosts Denver in Home Finale

Saturday, February 15

Fort Wayne, Ind.

7 p.m.

Purdue Fort Wayne

7-419-9; SL

Denver

6-413-12; SL

Denver

IPFW

Photo by: Lucas Carter

2/15/2014 8:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball

Box Score

GAME NOTES

FORT WAYNE, Ind. - The IPFW Mastodons will host the Denver Pioneers for the time in each program's history in the 2013-14 home finale for the Mastodons.

Opponent: Denver Pioneers (12-12, 5-4 Summit League)
When: Saturday, February 15 | 7 p.m.
Where: Fort Wayne, Ind. | Gates Sports Center
Radio: WKJG 1380 AM The Fan | Brett Rump play-by-play
Live Stats: IPFW Sidearm Live Stats
Live Video: Mastodon All-Access

SCOUTING THE PIONEERS

Denver makes its way to Fort Wayne after falling to IUPUI on Thursday evening by a 59-49 score. The 49 points in the game are the fewest scored by Denver this season.

Chris Udofia scored a team-best 13 points, while Summit League Player of the Week Brett Olson scored 10. Olson and Cam Griffin each pulled down five rebounds, while Udofia dished out a team-best five assists and picked up three steals.

This season Olson paces the team with a 15.1 point per game average, while Udofia pours in 12.5 points per game. Three others - Jalen Love (9.2), Marcus Byrd (8.5), and Cam Griffin (8.3) - each average over eight points per game. Olson has made a team-best 50 three-point field goals, over two per game, while hitting on 93 percent of his free throws (83-of-89) and 42 percent of his long range tries (50-of-120).

Griffin leads the team by pulling down 6.2 rebounds per game, as Denver gets out-rebounded by an average of 4.5 rebounds per game. Udofia leads the team in assists (3.8), steals (39), and blocked shots (62), while Griffin is close behind in steals (34).

RECORD ROLLING
IPFW's 19-8 start this season is tied for the fourth-best 27-game record in program history, and is the best in IPFW's NCAA Division I era.

A WINNING PACE

IPFW's 19 wins this season stand as the fourth-most wins in a single-season in program history. The school record for wins is 23, set in 1992-93 by the squad that advanced to the NCAA Division II National Tournament.

DON'T CALL IT A COMEBACK

Ok, well, you can call it a comeback if you want - we're just taking the advice of LL Cool J. On January 30, IPFW overcame a 15-point deficit to beat the Omaha Mavericks at home. It tied IPFW's NCAA Division I record for the largest deficit recorded in an IPFW win, tied with a December 10, 2011 game, also against Omaha. The largest comeback in IPFW's Division I history came on January 20, 2011 at North Dakota State where the team had an 18-point deficit and won.

DRAFTED STAR

Former Mastodon standout Frank Gaines was selected with the first pick in the second round by the Maine Red Claws in the 2013 NBA Development League draft. In 29 games with the Red Claws, Gaines is averaging 19.7 points per game, which ranks second on his squad and 11th in the D-League.

STRAIGHT SHOOTER

A look behind IPFW's shooting percentage, which is the 16th-best team total in the country, you will see three regular players shooting at .500 or better. Leading that group is IPFW junior forward Steve Forbes, who shoots 62.8 percent from the field (118-of-185). Forbes' totals are quite good; however, he does not appear in the NCAA national rankings because he is 12 makes shy of missing the minimum of five made shots per game mark in order to be ranked. ESPN, however, has a much less stringent minimum to qualify (five field goal attempts per game), and in that ranking Forbes stands seventh in the country.

~ Feel the Rumble ~