Box Score

FORT WAYNE, Ind. -- It was IPFW who entered Saturday's contest as one the nation's most prolific three-point shooting teams, but at the Hilliard Gates Sports Center, the IUPUI women's basketball team knocked down seven buckets from downtown in their 70-61 win over the Mastodons.

IUPUI (10-9, 5-3 Summit) hit their first five three-point attempts in the second half, fueling the game's decisive 24-8 run.  Nicole James, who missed time in the first half after taking an elbow to the eye, came out blazing in the second half, hitting three of the Jaguars' five long-range baskets en route to 12 points in the half.

Brykeesha Tate finished with a season-high 17 points for the Jags, her most since scoring 11 at the Gates Sports Center a year prior.  The senior knocked down 9-of-12 attempts from the free-throw line, helping IUPUI ice the game.

Overall, four Jaguars finished in double figures, with Tate leading the way, followed by Janna Eichelberger, who had 13.  All of James' points came in the second half, while Brittany Ransom had 10 for IUPUI.

"It was good that we got everybody involved today," head coach Shann Hart said.  "We're not a three-point shooting team, but when the other team tries to take away what we do in the post, we have to knock down some shots and we did that."

"I think we showed some folks that we could win without Julia and Jernisha today."

The last time neither Julia Whitted nor Jernisha Cann had 10 or more points in a game came on March 5, 2007, when the Jaguars fell in the semifinals of the Mid-Continent Confence Tournament.

After a sloppy first half in which the Jaguars committed 10 turnovers and hit just 9-of-25 field goals, IUPUI came out with a different mentality in the second half.

"We talked at halftime about valuing our possessions, because we weren't doing a good enough job of that," Hart said.  "It was a matter of executing our offensive sets properly and moving the ball to the open shooter when the defense collapsed."

Leading by a slim 25-24 margin at halftime, James drained a three from the right wing on IUPUI's first possession of the second half to get the run started.  Tate followed with a layup after Whitted passed out of a double team on the post and James drained her second straight three of the half to give the Jags a 33-28 lead.

Eichelberger scored the Jags' next four points, draining a short jumper and two free throws, and after a James steal, Ransom drilled a three from the corner to push the lead to 12.  After the Mastodons hit a jumper to try and slow the momentum, Eichelberger splashed a three from the right corner, making IUPUI 5-for-5 in the second half from beyond the arc.

IUPUI finished the second half going 5-for-9 from three-point range.

James capped the run with her third long ball of the half off a feed from Tate, giving the Jags their largest lead of the game, at 17 points, with 11:33 left to play.

Though IPFW (2-17, 1-7 Summit) hit their season average with 8 three-pointers in the game, they came in 27 attempts.  The Mastodons finally caught fire from behind the arc late in the contest, cutting the IUPUI lead to 64-59 with 37 seconds remaining.  The Jags hit 6-of-8 freebies from there to seal their third straight win.

IUPUI improved to 6-1 all time in Ft. Wayne, while their 7-for-14 shooting from three-point range equaled their best percentage of the season, while the seven connections from downtown matched their season high.

While Cann and Whitted did not post their usual numbers, Whitted finished with a career-high 4 assists, finding open cutters and shooters out of double teams.  Cann was an efficient 4-for-6 from the field, hitting two buckets down the stretch to thwart IPFW's attempted comeback.  

The Jaguars will continue their road trip as they head further up I-69 to Rochester, Mich., to battle Oakland University on Monday.  Tip-off from the O'Rena is scheduled for 7 p.m. ET.