San Diego 81, Ind.-Pur.-Indpls. 74

Friday December 06, 2002

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. (AP) Roy Morris scored 21 points and Jason Blair had 19 points and 11 rebounds as San Diego beat Indiana-Purdue-Indianapolis 81-74 Friday in the first round of the Boilermaker Invitational.

San Diego (4-1) will play Purdue, which beat Middle Tennessee 85-56 in the second game at Mackey Arena, for the championship Saturday night.

The Toreros outrebounded IUPUI 22-7 and shot 52 percent to lead by as many as 15 in the first half.

The Jaguars (3-5) went on a 17-7 run, capped by a 3-pointer by Marcus May, to pull to 60-58 with 8:45 remaining, but IUPUI never managed to take the lead.

San Diego, which beat then-No. 14 UCLA at Pauley Pavilion, pushed the lead to 71-60, then had it sliced to 73-68 after a 3 by IUPUI's Josh Mullins.

The Toreros again killed IUPUI's momentum. They scored consecutive layups the latter off an IUPUI turnover for a nine-point lead.

Baskets by Mullins and Brandon Cole made it 77-72 and IUPUI appeared to catch a break when San Diego had a backcourt violation. The Jaguars though, couldn't convert on their possession and the Torero's sealed the win with free throws.

Antoine Lewis led the Jaguars with 20 points, May had 16 and Mullins 15.

Morris went 9-for-10 from the line and Morris made all four 3-point attempts for the Toreros.

(Copyright 2002 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)