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WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Early in the second half the IUPUI women’s basketball team trailed by four points to No. 21 Purdue, but the Boilermakers depth and experience proved to be too much as they downed IUPUI, 75-45, Sunday afternoon inside Mackey Arena.

Sunday’s game marked the final weekend event in a weekend long celebration surrounding the renovations to Mackey Arena, and behind Nevena Markovic’s 12 first-half points, the Jaguars gave the Boilermakers an early scare trailing only by six heading into halftime.

“I thought our ladies really competed and I was happy with our defensive effort. We kind of ran out of bodies there at the end but we did a nice job,” said head coach Austin Parkinson.

“I was very impressed with Nevena. She really stepped out and obviously Purdue didn’t have a scouting report on her, but she is very versatile and to be able to step into this atmosphere and play with the confidence she did was very impressive.”

IUPUI struggled to score early receiving only a bucket on a nice up-and-under move from Kerah Nelson. Markovic entered off the bench and quickly made an impact burying two 3-pointers, bringing IUPUI within two points, 10-8, with 12:44 to play.

Emily Phillips knotted the score at 13 with a trey from the left wing, silencing the crowd, but KK Houser scored eight of Purdue’s next 14 points pushing the Purdue margin to 13 points, 28-15, with just under four minutes to play.

Despite the double-digit deficit, IUPUI kept its cool and closed the half on a 7-0 run over the final 3:19, which included Markovic’s third 3-pointer of the half and a key bucket from Clara Mitchell as the shot clock was going off, closing the Jaguars deficit to 28-22 entering halftime.

Out of the half, Nelson buried a jumper from the right wing trimming the Jags deficit to four points, but that was when Purdue started to turned up its defensive pressure. Following Nelson’s jumper, the Boilermakers retaliated with an 8-0 run extending their lead back to double-digits, 36-24, at the 16:47 mark.

From that point, Purdue’s Brittany Rayburn began to heat up as she connected on four straight jumpers and from the 16:47 mark to the eight-minute mark, Purdue widened its lead to 55-35.

“Coach Versyp did a nice job of getting them to really pick up their defense and for us, we talked about if we were going to be in the game we had to get back on defense at not have turnovers,” Parkinson said. “We started to let them get out in the open floor and we turned it over a little bit and I think that caused their run.”

Down the stretch the Jags continued to fight, and picked up some easy buckets off defensive steals, but Purdue finished off a 75-45 victory in the opener.

In addition to her 14 points, Markovic grabbed four boards, had three blocks, and dished out two assists. Mitchell was the other Jags player in double figures with 10 points on 5-of-8 shooting.

Nelson and Alex Thompson added six points apiece, while Thompson led IUPUI in rebounding with five in her collegiate debut.

Houser paced the Boilermakers offensive attack scoring 18 points and she was joined in double-figures by Rayburn and her 14 points.

The Jags have five days off before returning to action on Saturday, Nov. 19, against St. Francis (NY) inside The Jungle. Tip is set for 2 p.m.