FORT WAYNE, Ind. – Junior Jasmine Horne led all scorers with a career-high 23 points, but a 17-4 IPFW run midway through the second half sent the IUPUI women's basketball team to a 72-55 loss Saturday afternoon at Memorial Coliseum in Fort Wayne, Ind.

Horne connected on a career-best eight field goals, including three treys, to lead the Jaguars in scoring, while also adding three rebounds, one assist, and one steal.

"Jasmine played her best game as a Jaguar by far," said head coach Austin Parkinson. "The thing I appreciated the most about how she played was how she competed throughout the game. She took what the defense gave her and attacked when she could, which was good to see."

In recent games the Jags have found themselves in early deficits and the trend continued against the Mastodons. IPFW connected on its first four shots from the floor, including three buckets from Stephanie Rosado and a trey by Kayla Drake, as it jumped out to a 9-0 advantage.

"We have talked about our slow starts and at the end of the day it's about getting stops defensively to give you a chance at the other end of the floor," Parkinson said. "We have come out of the gates a little slow the last few games and had some careless turnovers and for whatever reason, our defense hasn't been where it has needed to be at the start of the game."

Trailing 19-10 following a Kerah Nelson bucket, Horne became the hot hand for the Jaguars scoring eight of the team's next 10 points, but the Mastodons continued to execute their offense pouring in 15 points during that stretch that pushed their lead to 16 points, 36-20, with a little more than five minutes to play in the opening stanza.

Erin Murphy inched the Mastodons closer to a 20-point first-half cushion with a lay-up at the 2:38 mark, but IUPUI held IPFW scoreless in the final 2:30 of the half and used triples by Gretchen Gaskin and Horne in the final 1:30 of the half to trim its deficit to 13 points, 41-28, entering the half.

IUPUI turned up the defensive intensity in the opening minutes of the second half to force three IPFW turnovers while shrinking its deficit to 10 points, 43-33, with 17:12 remaining.

Still trailing by 10 points, 48-38, following another Horne 3-pointer, the Jags could only buy one bucket and a pair of free throws over the next 8:12. During that stretch, a trio of three's helped the Mastodons go on a 17-4 run to open a 65-42 cushion.

Despite the deficit, the Jags continued to battle until the final horn and outscored IPFW 11-2 in the final 2:08, but fell to the Mastodons, 72-55.

IUPUI's front line of Janna Eichelberger and Clara Mitchell followed Horne's lead posting eight and seven points, respectively. The duo each grabbed five rebounds as well.

As a team, the Jaguars shot above 70 percent at the free throw line for the second consecutive game hitting on 7-of-9 attempts from the charity stripe, while committing 17 turnovers, marking the first time this season IUPUI has turned the ball over fewer than 20 times in back-to-back games.

"We did have some positives today in good free throw shooting and keeping our turnovers down," Parkinson said. "I told the ladies that one of these games if you keep fighting and get a break, your confidence will take off. We just need to stick with it and one of these times we will get that break."