Box Score

INDIANAPOLIS -- Last season, the IUPUI women's basketball team held the opposition to 38,9 percent shooting from the field in going to The Summit League Tournament Championship game.  In their exhibition opener against the OGBR Legends, the Jaguars gave up 65.2 percent shooting to the Legends in a 90-81 loss at The Jungle Monday evening.   

IUPUI , who led The Summit League in scoring defense at 57.0 points per game in 2007-08, never led in the contest, coming within 7 points of the lead with 4:43 remaining in the first half.  Julia Whitted led the Jaguars with 18 points, while Courtney Coleman had 24 for the Legends.

"Obviously, we have some things to work out on both ends of the court,"  IUPUI head coach Shann Hart said.  "Working in five new players to the rotation takes some time, and with so many young players on the team, we're going to have some growing pains.  Tonight, that was fairly obvious."

Despite arriving at The Jungle 20 minutes prior to tip-off, the Legends were not affected by their short warm up; they came out of the gates on fire, hitting 14-of-18 field goals in the first 9:56 of the game to open a 36-16 lead.  Four of those buckets were from beyond the three-point arc, while the Jags did not hit a long-range basket until the final five minutes of the half.

Nicole James and Brittany Ransom each dialed up three-pointers during a 17-4 IUPUI run that cut the deficit to seven at 40-33.  Four IUPUI steals contributed to the run, as the Jaguars had 8 steals in the half, three each by Jernisha Cann and James.

Following the 4-minute media timeout, Erika Yaneth Valek drilled a three from the wing, extending the Legends lead back to 10, and OGBR took a 15-point lead into the locker room.

While the Jaguars shot just 42.9 percent in the second half, they took nearly twice as many shots as their opponent, using 15 offensive rebounds to stay within striking distance.

IUPUI did nearly strike back, using a 14-2 run down the stretch to come within three possessions of the Legends, but some missed shots late hampered the Jaguars rally.

Working in six newcomers to the rotation, the Jaguars were tentative, committing 23 turnovers.  The Legends were able to turn those into 32 points.  On the positive side for IUPUI, the Jaguars forced 30 Legends turnovers, but only converted them into 31 points.

Kiara Butler was the Jags' highest-scoring newcomer, tallying 5 points.  The Jaguars' bench, helped by the play of Whitted, had 28 points.

Cann finished with 14 points and 8 rebounds, while Brykeesha Tate had 13 points and 6 assists.  James had 15 points on 6-of-14 shooting.

Hart was disappointed, but still managed to find a silver lining:  "There were times I was pleased with our effort, but overall, we're going to be working very hard in the next three days to get ready for Northern Illinois."

The Jaguars will tip-off the regular season on Friday, Nov. 14, when they travel up I-65 to DeKalb, Ill., and a matchup against Northern Illinois.  The contest will begin at 7 p.m. CT.