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INDIANAPOLIS - A hot shooting IUPUI basketball team built an 18-point second half lead against Duquesne on a chilly Saturday night and hung tough down the stretch, escaping with a 73-64 win over the visiting Dukes inside the Jungle. Bouncy senior Robert Glenn led the way with 27 points and 13 rebounds and sophomore Alex Young tossed in 22 in the victory.

IUPUI (9-3) shot 50 percent from both the floor and three against the normally stingy Duquesne (8-4) defense in the win. Opponents came in shooting just 36.6 percent against the Dukes and they had allowed only one opponent to hit better than 40 percent from the floor the entire season coming in.

"This was a huge win for our basketball program," IUPUI Head Coach Ron Hunter said. "They're a really good basketball team. They were in the NIT last year and took Pittsburgh to double overtime earlier this season. Coming in, I was really worried because they've got some guys over there that can really play.

"Our guys responded though. It was critical for us to get the momentum early and carry that almost all night. Even when they started cutting into our lead, we never let them pull even, and I think that's because we're a veteran basketball team. We got some important stops and made enough plays to win."

For the first 26 minutes, IUPUI was clearly in control as junior point guard John Ashworth was orchestrating the offense to precision, setting up Glenn for layups and Young and Leroy Nobles for open threes. A Young three from in front of the IUPUI bench off a Glenn feed made it 60-42 with 14:24 left and it felt like the Jaguars were on the verge of a blowout.

Duquense adjusted and tightened the screws defensively, breaking out a full-court press and opting to double team Glenn on the blocks as soon as he'd catch the ball. The result was a 16-4 run that had the IUPUI lead down to 64-58 with 6:45 left, and the Jaguars continued to compound their own issues.

Both Glenn and Nobles missed the front end of one-and-ones on successive trips, giving the guests ample opportunity to cut into the lead even deeper. However, six straight Duquesne missed shots kept the score steady until Nobles stopped the bleeding with two free throws with 4:23 left. On the ensuing possession, senior Billy Pettiford came up with a huge steal that was later converted into a Glenn layup, pushing the lead back to double-digits with 3:40 to play. The guests got no closer than seven the rest of the night.

Glenn's first double-double of the season came on a 10-of-18 shooting night and 7-of-13 effort at the foul line. Young matched his career-high, hitting five threes on eight attempts and Nobles went 6-of-11 from the floor to score 16. He also matched his season-high with seven rebounds and Young grabbed six.

IUPUI outrebounded the Dukes 41-34 to help offset 16 turnovers.

"We knew going in that we'd really have to rebound the basketball. If we give them a lot of second chance points, we probably lose this basketball game. I was proud of how hard our guys played though," Hunter said. "With this being finals week, we thought our guys might come out a little sluggish, but they fought hard for 40 minutes tonight."

Ashworth epitomized the fight, delivering a career-high 12 assists, including nine in the first half, finishing two shy of tying the single-game school record. He played 37 minutes at the point while Duquesne rotated three different players on his defensively throughout the evening.

DU point guard Eric Evans scored 20 points and Damian Saunders recorded his ninth double-double in 12 games with 10 points and 18 rebounds. Bill Clark, Duquesne's leading scorer coming in, finished with 16.

IUPUI opened the game by building a quick 11-4 game in the opening 3:27. The Jags essentially scored on their first five possessions, getting a jumper from Glenn and a three from Young and back-to-back layups from Glenn. On the fifth possession, Young missed a trey, but Glenn rebounded the miss and found the sophomore cutting on his way to a thunderous one-handed dunk, prompting a DU timeout. The Dukes pulled within two at 17-15 but never pulled even as IUPUI scored the next five points.

The first half lead grew to 13, but Duquesne closed the first half with five straight points including a Clark three at the buzzer, making it 41-33 at the break.

The win was just IUPUI's second-ever against an Atlantic 10 Conference opponent, both of which have come in the Jungle. The Jaguars had previously defeated UMass on December 1, 2007, 89-77.

The Jaguars will return to action on Wednesday when they travel to Indiana State for its final contest before Christmas. Tipoff is now scheduled for 12:00 p.m. from the Hulman Center - please note, that time is different than the previously reported start time. Live audio can be heard via the web as Scott McCauley calls the action on IUPUIJags.com. Pregame coverage will begin at approximately 11:50.