INDIANAPOLIS - IUPUI looks for its second straight win on Monday, Feb. 21, when it welcomes Southern Utah to The Jungle for a 7 p.m. tip. Monday’s game will be IUPUI’s Pink Zone Game and Senior Night. Gretchen Gaskin and Laura Blaydes will play their final home game in an IUPUI uniform and will be honored prior to the game.

·         The Jaguars close out the regular season with a two-game road trip at Centenary and Oral Roberts on Feb. 26 and Feb. 28, respectively.

·         On Monday, Feb. 21, IUPUI’s two seniors, Gretchen Gaskin and Laura Blaydes, will be playing their final game in front of the home fans at The Jungle on Senior Night.

·         Prior to the game, both Gaskin and Blaydes will be recognized for their hard work and contributions to the program during their careers.

·         In addition to Senior Night, the Feb. 21 game will also be IUPUI’s WBCA Pink Zone Game as IUPUI will be raising awareness for Breast Cancer Research.

·         IUPUI Athletics and Zeta Tau Alpha have come together and will be throwing out pink t-shirts throughout the game in addition to passing out pink ribbons.

·         Zeta Tau Alpha will also have a table set up outside the gym where fans can donate money for cancer research and write notes to those who are currently fighting the battle against cancer and those notes will be delivered to Simon Cancer Center.

·         IUPUI used a 3-pointer from Gretchen Gaskin less than a minute into the ball game to take an early lead and never looked back as the Jaguars defeated UMKC 75-61 in Summit League play on Saturday afternoon to snap a 15-game losing skid.

·         Gaskin paced the Jaguars scoring 16 of her career-high 18 points in the first half to carry the Jaguars to a four-point halftime lead, before Nelson took over and scored 16 of her game-high 21 points in the second half to close out the win.

·         After UMKC had reduced an early 16-point lead down to two points in the beginning stages of the second-half, a 15-2 IUPUI run during a seven-minute Kangaroos scoring drought proved to be the difference.

·         IUPUI was on fire from three to start the game as all four of the Jags field goals came from behind the arc, two of which coming from Gaskin, as IUPUI sprinted out to a 12-0 lead over the opening 4:11.

·         A UMKC free throw with 15:33 on the clock got the Kangaroos on the board, but a floater by Jasmine Horne and an old-fashioned 3-point play from Gaskin capped off a 17-1 run for IUPUI over the first 5:35.

·         UMKC snapped out of their slow start and responded with a 15-5 run, cutting the Jags lead to six points, 22-16, but a lay-up off an inbounds play by Janna Eichelberger followed by a fast break lay-up from Kerah Nelson in which the ball did not touch the floor, pushed the Jags lead back into double figures, 26-16, with 7:54 remaining.

·         Gaskin’s third trey of the half came with 6:03 on the clock widening IUPUI’s lead to 13 points, 31-18, but the Jags went scoreless for the remainder of the half and a 9-0 finish to the first 20 minutes from the Kangaroos slimmed IUPUI’s lead to four points ,31-27, entering the half.

·         With 15 minutes to play, UMKC had trimmed the Jags lead to two points, 39-37, and the Kangaroos were still within striking range with the score in IUPUI’s favor, 45-41, with 12 minutes left.

·         Over the next 7:30, Nelson took over and scored eight of the Jaguars 15 points during a 15-2 spurt that widened the lead back to double digits, 60-43, with 4:30 on the clock. The dagger during the run came from Dawn Luster, who buried a 3-pointer with the shot clock running down to keep the momentum going.

·         Down the stretch, UMKC was able to strike quickly and the Jags missed some free throws trimming IUPUI’s lead to seven points, 68-61, with 34 seconds to play.

·         However, IUPUI scored seven points in the final 30 seconds to close out the 75-61 triumph.

·         Horne and Eichelberger both added 11 points, marking the second time this season that IUPUI has had four players score in double figures. Luster almost made it five double-digit scorers with nine points, but her career-high seven assists proved to be more valuable.

·         The win moved IUPUI to 4-21 on the season and 2-13 in conference play. The four wins surpass last year’s win total of three and snaps a five-game losing skid against UMKC.

·         IUPUI returns to the floor on Monday, Feb. 21, when it hosts Southern Utah. Monday’s game will be Senior Night as Gretchen Gaskin and Laura Blaydes will be honored prior to playing their final home game in The Jungle. Monday’s game will also be IUPUI’s Pink Zone game supporting breast cancer awareness.

·         Southern Utah comes to The Jungle fresh off a win at Western Illinois on Saturday, Feb. 19.

·         The Thunderbirds have won three consecutive games, including handing Oral Roberts its first conference loss of the season on Feb. 12.

·         Challis Pascucci leads the team and is third in the Summit League in scoring, averaging 17.3 ppg, while her 9.0 rpg ranks second in the conference.

·         In Summit League-only play, Southern Utah leads the conference in 3-point field goal percentage defense, holding its opponents to .298 shooting from deep.

·         The Thunderbirds are also the league leaders in rebounding, averaging 42.8 rpg.

·         In league-play, Southern Utah is grabbing 15.1 offensive rebounds per game and 27.7 defensive rebounds per game.

·         Kaila Goff gets the SUU offense running and her 5.2 apg ranks second in the conference.

·         Four players on the IUPUI roster are scoring in double figures for their careers against the Thunderbirds, led by Kerah Nelson’s 23.0 ppg.

·         The other three players averaging over 10.0 ppg against SUU are Jasmine Horne (12.0 ppg), Shea Collins (11.0 ppg), and Shakeeta Cotton (10.0 ppg). All three have only played one game against Southern Utah.

·         Nelson has two 20-plus point efforts against the Thunderbirds, including a career-high 29 points in Cedar City, Utah, earlier this season.

·         Nelson is also shooting 56.1 percent (23-of-41) against SUU in her career, while averaging 8.3 rpg.

Below is where IUPUI players rank among the Top 10 in Summit League statistical categories through games on Feb. 13 (overall/conference):

·         In the second-to-last home game of her career, Gretchen Gaskin paced IUPUI in the first half and helped the Jags snap a 15-game losing skid.

·         Gaskin hit three 3-pointers in the first half and scored a career-high 16 points in the first half against the Kangaroos.

·         The Orland Park, Ill., native finished the game with a career-best 18 points on 7-of-10 shooting.

·         Her seven made field goals against UMKC also was a career-high.

·         In the second half of IUPUI’s win vs. UMKC, the Jaguars shot 57.7 percent from the floor. The second-half field goal percentage is the second highest field goal percentage in a half for the Jags this season.

·         Gretchen Gaskin set a career-high with 18 points, 16 of which coming in the first half.

·         Kerah Nelson scored 16 of her game-high 21 points in the second half, her fifth 20-plus point outing of the season.

·         Dawn Luster had nine points, a career-high seven assists, the most of any IUPUI player this season, and four rebounds.

·         Four players scored in double figures marking the second time that has happened this season. The first time came at Southern Utah on Jan. 22.

·         The win vs. UMKC snapped a 15-game losing streak and a five-game losing skid to the Kangaroos.

·         On the season, Luster is averaging 4.4 ppg while shooting 33.7 percent from the floor in 21.1 minutes per game.

·         However, over the last seven games, Luster is scoring 6.6 ppg on 37.5 percent shooting.

·         More impressively, Luster is shooting 61.1 percent (11-of-18) from three over the last seven games, which comes on the heels of shooting 12.5 percent (2-of-16) from three over her first 15 games.

·         However, the most important thing for a point guard is limiting turnovers and since Jan. 18, Luster has posted an assist-to-turnover ratio of 1.0 (18 assists to 18 turnovers.).

·         Luster is tied for 10th in the Summit League in assists (2.9) in league games.

·         Following a one-game absence against Oakland on Jan. 10, sophomore Kerah Nelson has been a bright spot for the Jaguars.

·         Starting with a Jan. 15 decision against South Dakota State, Nelson has scored in double figures in seven of her last 10 games.

·         Against the Jackrabbits on Jan. 15, Nelson scored 17 points, and followed that performance with a 19-point, six-rebound outing against North Dakota State just two days later.

·         The offensive improvements continued at Southern Utah, when Nelson erupted for a career-high 29 points, surpassing her previous career high of 27 points set earlier this season against IU-Southeast on Nov. 23, 2010.

·         For the fourth straight game, Nelson hit at least seven field goals as she went 7-of-9 from the floor against UMKC on Jan. 24 to score a team-high 15 points.

·         Following her scoreless output on Jan. 29 at Western Illinois, Nelson responded in a big way scoring 20 points and grabbing nine rebounds vs. Oakland on Feb. 15, her fourth 20-point scoring effort of the season.

·         On Feb. 7 vs. in-state rival IPFW, Nelson scored 17 points and grabbed a season-high 12 rebounds, her first double-double of the season and the fourth of her career.

·         After not making a field goal against Western Illinois and scoring a combined eight points vs. North Dakota State and South Dakota State, Nelson bounced back with a game-high 21 points vs. UMKC.

·         16 of Nelson’s 21 points came in the second half, helping IUPUI snap a 15-game losing skid.

·         Nelson’s field goal percentage over her last 10 games is .538 (64-of-119), resulting in her scoring 14.6 ppg.

·         On the season, Nelson is eighth in all games in field goal percentage (.485), while ranking fourth in field goal percentage (.549) in conference-only play.