Kansas City, Mo. ? The UMKC men's basketball team
dropped a 77-72 decision to IUPUI on Thursday night at Municipal
Auditorium. The Kangaroos led 72-69 with
1:22 remaining, but the Jaguars scored the final eight points to run out five point
winners.
IUPUI opened the game by hitting its first three long range
attempts, as it built a 15-2 advantage over the first four and a half
minutes. Trailing 21-10, UMKC closed the
gap to four points behind a 7-0 spurt behind a Brent Stephens tip-in, a James
Humphrey three pointer and a Spencer Johnson jumper.
The Jaguars stretched their lead to nine points on three
occasions before back-to-back three pointers by Tim Blackwell and Brian
Gettinger helped cut the deficit to four with 2:18 left in the half. IUPUI then stretched its lead to eight before
heading into the locker room with the 38-32 advantage.
IUPUI maintained at least a five point lead for the first 12
minutes of the second half. Trailing
60-51, the Kangaroos used a 12-2 run over a five-minute stretch to take their
first lead of the game at 63-62.
Blackwell connected on a long ball to bring UMKC to within a point
before a Dane Brumagin steal led to a running jumper by Reggie Hamilton to give
the Kangaroos the one-point lead.
Stephens then helped the Kangaroos stretch their advantage
to three points on three separate occasions.
However, each time UMKC built their lead the Jaguars answered. The forward put his team up three for the
final time with 1:22 left courtesy of three free throws. A George Hill lay-up
cut the deficit to a single point with 47 second remaining, and the Jags then
connected on all six of their free throws down the stretch, which led to the
five-point victory.
UMKC shot .421 (24-57) from the floor and .435 (10-23) from
three-point range, while IUPUI finished with a .500 (24-48) field goal
percentage and a .588 (10-17) mark from long range. The Jaguars also held the advantage on the
boards, 33-28.
Two players finished in double figures for UMKC, and all 11
players that saw action finished with at least one field goal. Stephens paced the team with 16 points on
5-of-9 shooting, while Hamilton
finished the game with 10 points and six assists.
Three Jaguar players, meanwhile, accounted for 68 of the
team's 77 points. Hill finished with a
career-high 34 points on 12-of-20 shooting, Gary Patterson scored 19 and Austin
Montgomery added 15 for the team.
UMKC (5-10, 0-3) will return to action on Saturday night
against Western Illinois. The game will be the second of a UMKC-WIU
doubleheader.
