KANSAS CITY – Limiting UMKC’s offensive rebounding was one of the keys for the IUPUI women’s basketball team entering Monday’s Summit League contest, but the Kangaroos corralled 15 offensive rebounds leading to 21 second-chance points as UMKC rolled to a 73-55 win over IUPUI.

For the fourth straight game, Kerah Nelson scored in double figures with 15 points on 7-of-9 shooting from the floor. Nelson also added six rebounds and three assists notching team highs in all three statistical categories.

However, the story of the game was UMKC’s rebounding and ability to get to the free throw line. The Kangaroos outrebounded the Jaguars 41-27 and converted 21-of-26 free throw attempts compared to 9-of-13 for IUPUI.

“Two of the keys we talked about prior to the game were taking care of the basketball and boxing out and we simply didn’t give a good enough effort tonight,” head coach Austin Parkinson said. “UMKC did a great job of getting position for rebounds and played harder than we did and that hasn’t happened all year. As one of the smaller teams in the country let alone our league, we have to improve our fundamentals on the glass.”

The Kangaroos gave the Jags multiple defensive looks in the opening minutes and it took IUPUI some time to adjust.

By the 13:30 mark of the first half, UMKC had jumped out to a 12-2 lead and the Jaguars hit 1-of-7 shots from the floor in addition to turning the ball over five times.

Over the next 2:04, IUPUI turned the tables on the Kangaroos by extending its defensive pressure allowing its offense to get going. Jasmine Horne buried a deep jumper from the top of the key and Nelson converted two looks in the paint during a 7-0 run that cut the Jaguars deficit to three, 12-9, with 11:26 on the clock.

IUPUI trailed 18-14 at the 7:50 mark, but the Kangaroos got to the free throw line five times over the next 4:11, converting all five attempts, in the midst of a 12-3 run upping their lead to 30-17, their largest of the half.

Buckets by Nelson and Horne over the final three minutes were enough to trim the Jags deficit to 12 points, 33-21, entering halftime.

Nelson, Horne, and Dawn Luster each tallied six points in the first 20 minutes combining for 18 of IUPUI’s 21 points. On the other side, seven players scored in the opening stanza for the Kangaroos and they outscored the Jaguars, 9-1 at the free throw line.

The defensive intensity was nonexistent over the first five minutes of the second half as both teams nearly doubled their offensive output of the first half during that span.

Unfortunately for IUPUI, even though the flow of the offense improved, the Jags found that their halftime deficit had grown from 12 to 14 points, 44-30.

UMKC’s ballooned up 17 points before an old-fashioned three-point play from Clara Mitchell slimmed IUPUI’s deficit back down to 14 points, 50-36, with 10:36 to play.

However, just as the Jags looked to reduce their lead into single digits, a 10-3 Kangaroos run over the next three minutes expanded the UMKC advantage to 60-39 with 7:36 remaining.

IUPUI was able to bring its deficit down to 15 in the final five minutes, but the Jags ultimately fell to the Kangaroos, 73-55.