Denver basketball (2-1, 0-0) defeated former Summit League member IUPUI (0-3) 63-47 at the USTA Invitational Monday afternoon. Denver’s win total, two, matched all of last season’s output in three games.
Denver jumped out to a 37-19 lead at the half behind KJ Hunt’s 16 points and Mikey Henn’s 10 points. Denver lead by as many as 19 points in the second half before the Jaguars chopped away at the DU lead. Denver led, 43-33, with ten minutes remaining. Down the stretch, the Pioneers held the Jags to cold shooting on stingy defense and made timely buckets to secure the win.
Denver held IUPUI to 33.3% shooting from the field. KJ Hunt and Michael Henn led the Pioneers with 22 and 21 points respectively. Denver only shot 13-24 from the free-throw line but shot 50% from three (8-16) to secure the win.
The win over IUPUI matched last season’s victory count. Progress will come in small steps this season but today’s win was an important first step in putting recent seasons in the rearview mirror. The last time Denver defeated a DI opponent was North Dakota in Summit League conference play on February 5th, 2021.
Big win for the Pios!
DU only played nine guys tonight, presumably because they play three games in three days in San Antonio.
If DU can win again this year, their third victory will signify a 50% improvement in the win column over last season…
This is interesting and very exciting (that is sarcasm btw)
I had assumed DU had shut down D1 basketball and only had a club team. I based that assumption on the game played against Regis and the loss to OUAZ (had to look them up, I thought that was a youth league team or something, but apparently it is an actual University that plays NAIA).