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INDIANAPOLIS - IUPUI will be looking for back-to-back conference wins for the first time since the 2008-09 season when it hosts Southern Utah for a 7 p.m. tip on Monday, Jan. 16, at The Jungle. Scott McCauley will have the call on IUPUIJags.com beginning just before tip.
 
SCOUTING THE THUNDERBIRDS

• Southern Utah comes into Monday’s game with a 4-13 overall record and an 0-6 Summit League mark.
• The Thunderbirds are led offensively by their freshman guard, Haile Mandelko, who averages 13.7 ppg. Carli Moreland is the other SUU player scoring in double figures averaging 10.0 ppg, while leading the team in rebounding with 8.4 rpg.
• As a team, Southern Utah is shooting 36.3 percent from the floor and 32.8 percent from three, while its opponents are connecting on 41.1 percent of its shots, including 33.8 percent of its three’s.
• The Thunderbirds are one of the better rebounding teams in the Summit League averaging 41.7 rpg, but they have been plagues by turnovers.
• They average 22.2 turnovers per game and their turnover margin is -8.5.

 
ALL-TIME SERIES AGAINST SOUTHERN UTAH

• Monday’s meeting between the two schools will be the 27th meeting all-time with Southern Utah owning a 15-11 lead.
• SUU has won two straight, including a 62-45 win last February in Indianapolis.
• The Jags are 7-5 against the Thunderbirds when playing in Indianapolis.

 
A LOOK BACK AT THE LAST GAME

• Katie Comello scored a career-high 28 points, Kerah Nelson scored 18 points and eclipsed 1,000 career points, and Del’Niqua Bellamy held the Summit League’s leading scorer and the third-leading scorer in the country to six points as IUPUI led from start to finish in a 72-48 win over Oral Roberts Saturday afternoon inside The Jungle.
• The win snapped Oral Roberts four-game winning streak in the series and improved IUPUI’s overall and Summit League record to 7-11 and 2-4, respectively.
• Comello knocked down 8-of-13 shots, including 6-of-11 from three en route to her career-high 28 points, and scored 17 of those points in the second half.
• While Comello led the team offensively, Nelson continued her steady scoring production pitching in 18 points, pushing her over 1,000 points for her career. Nelson becomes just the fifth player to reach that scoring milestone as a junior and is the 20th player to do so in program history.
• Comello and Nelson were key in IUPUI’s victory, but Bellamy’s all-around performance was one of her best of the season. The Detroit-native scored eight points, grabbed a game- and career-high 11 rebounds, while holding the third-leading scorer in the country, Kevi Luper, to just six points on 2-of-12 shooting.
• IUPUI got off to the start it wanted to holding Oral Roberts to 0-of-6 shooting in the first 4:08, while using two baskets from Nevena Markovic, a triple from Nelson, and a lay-up from Bellamy to take a 9-0 lead out of the gates.
• Luper got the Golden Eagles on the board with a jumper at the 15:52 mark and Oral Roberts slowly chipped away at its deficit ultimately closing within four points, 16-12, with 8:19 to play.
• Luper’s second and last made basket of the game came with 5:33 on the clock, keeping ORU within five points, but those would be its final points of the half.
• In the final 4:33, four different players scored for IUPUI, capped off by a three-pointer by Comello at the buzzer, as an 8-0 Jaguars run to end the opening 20 minutes sent them into the locker room leading 31-16.
• The 16 first-half points for Oral Roberts tied for its fewest in a half this season.
• Despite hitting just two field goals in the first five minutes, IUPUI was aggressive offensively and got to the free throw line where it made its first eight attempts as its lead grew to 44-25 with 15 minutes to play.
• The Golden Eagles were able to bring its deficit back to 15 points the 13-minute mark, but triples on consecutive possessions by Comello widened IUPUI’s lead to 20 points, 50-30, and the Jags never looked back.
• Down the stretch, the Jaguars lead continued to grow and the Jags closed out a 72-48 win.
• IUPUI dominated the glass, 47-34, and connected on 19-of-23 attempts from the charity stripe compared to just 6-of-11 for ORU.
• Georgia Jones paced the Golden Eagles in scoring with 16 points.

 
NELSON BECOMES PART OF 1,000-POINT CLUB

• A lay-up with 6:48 to play against Oral Roberts on Jan. 14, gave Kerah Nelson her 15th point of the gave the 1,000th point of her career.
• Nelson finished with 18 points against the Golden Eagles and by surpassing the 1,000-point milestone, Nelson became the 20th player in program history to do so.
• The St. Petersburg, Fla.-native also became just the fifth player to reach the scoring milestone as a junior.
• Head coach Austin Parkinson went on to say, “I couldn’t be happier for Kerah because she has been through a lot and to score her 1,000th point this early in her career – with the rest of this season and her senior year left – is extremely, impressive.
• Following the game, Nelson went on to add, “It means a lot. I had no idea I was that close to 1,000 points. Without my teammates I couldn’t have gotten there and I’d like to thank them first and I guess hard work pays off.”

 
COMELLO DOES IT AGAIN

• Earlier this season in her first home game as a Jaguar, Katie Comello exploded for a career-high 25 points on six made three’s against St. Francis (NY).
• Since then, Comello had connected on multiple three’s on seven occasions, but against Oral Roberts on Jan. 14, Comello lit up the scoreboard.
• The Cincinnati, Ohio-native hit 8-of-13 shots from the floor, including 6-of-11 from behind-the-arc, en route to a career-high 28 points.
• The 28 points was her second 20-plus point outing this season.
• Comello also tied a season-high with four steals against the Golden Eagles.

 
DEE-DEE DEFENSE

• During her freshman campaign, Del’Niqua Bellamy, who goes by Dee-Dee, was known for her tenacious on-the-ball defense.
• Throughout the season, however, Bellamy has shown an improvement in other areas of her game.
• The 5-6 guard from Detroit had the best offensive night of her career against Kansas on Nov. 26, scoring a career-best 13 points on 6-of-8 shooting.
• Despite her improvement in other areas, she has the ability to impact a game with her defense.
• Earlier this season in the final game of the BTI Classic, had one of the best defensive performance of her career.
• Bellamy guarded Kalis Loyd, Lamar’s leading scorer averaging 19.0 ppg, and Bellamy held Loyd scoreless in 22 minutes of action. Loyd, who stands at 6-2 and owns an eight-inch height advantage over Bellamy, mustered up only two shot attempts.
• For her all-around play at the BTI Classic, Bellamy was named to the All-Tournament Team.
• For the second time this season, Bellamy’s defense was a key component to another IUPUI victory.
• In a 72-48 win over Oral Roberts on Jan. 14, Bellamy got the defensive assignment on Kevi Luper, the leading scorer in the Summit League and the then-third leading scorer in the country averaging 24.2 ppg.
• in 30 minutes of action, Bellamy held Luper to 2-of-12 shooting from the floor and six total points, marking Luper's first single-digit scoring game of the season.

 
RUNNING THE SHOW

• The IUPUI women’s basketball team is hoping that the Emily Phillips that showed up the last three games is here to stay.
• The junior transfer, who failed to score in double figures her 15 games, exploded on the scene the first weekend in January scoring in double figures in both games.
• Against the Golden Grizzlies, Phillips scored a career high 16 points on a career-high eight made field goals and almost helped the Jaguars overcome a 19-point second-half deficit.
• Phillips also dished out four assists while not committing a turnover, marking the first game this season where Phillips did not make a turnover.
• She then followed that performance with an 11-point, three-assist and career-high five steals outing at IPFW.
• Phillips continued her strong play against Oral Roberts chipping in seven points while grabbing a career-high seven rebounds.
• Entering Jan. 7, Phillips averaged 3.5 ppg, 2.0 rpg, 3.5 apg, and was shooting 20.8 percent from the floor.
• In her last three games, Phillips’ assists and rebounding averages have remained the same, while scoring 11.3 ppg on 47.1 percent shooting (16-of-34).

 
RETURNING TO FORM

• After two tough outings against South Dakota State and Southern Illinois in which she went a combined 4-of-16 from the floor, Kerah Nelson has returned to form in the Jaguars last eight outings.
• Including the Indiana game on Dec. 11, Nelson has scored in double-figures in eight of the last nine games, scoring over 18 points in seven of the nine contests, and is averaging 18.8 ppg during that stretch.
• The St. Petersburg, Fla.-native started with a then-season-high tying 25 points against the Hoosiers, before scoring 18 points apiece against Eastern Illinois (Dec. 17) and Butler (Dec. 21).
• Against Marygrove College on Dec. 28, Nelson was extremely efficient hitting 10-of-14 field goal attempts en route to a season-best 27 points in just 16 minutes of work.
• Despite battling foul trouble in the first half against Western Illinois, Nelson chipped in 11 points against Western Illinois on Dec. 31 in 27 minutes.
• In the Jags first game of 2012 against Trine University, Nelson scored 20 points, her fifth 20-point effort of the season, on a perfect 7-of-7 shooting from the floor and 6-of-7 shooting from the charity stripe.
• After having her double-figure scoring streak snapped at six games against Oakland, Nelson bounced back with 23 points at IPFW on Jan. 9 and 18 points against Oral Roberts on Jan. 14.
• During this nine-game stretch, Nelson is 57-of-106 (53.4 %) from the floor and 49-of-55 from the line (89.1 %).
• Nelson is also snatching 5.6 rebounds per game since Dec. 11, including back-to-back nine rebound performances against the Panthers and Bulldogs.

 
TIME CHANGE

• The IUPUI Athletics Department has announced the tip times for both the men’s and women’s Feb. 4 basketball doubleheader with IPFW has been changed.
• The men’s game will now be played at 1:00 p.m., followed by the women’s game at 3:30 p.m.. The games were originally slated for 4:30 and 7:00 p.m..
• The time changes were made to lessen potential conflicts with Super Bowl events throughout the city that day.
• Hundreds of events have been scheduled for the city of Indianapolis during the week with the Super Bowl Village being located less than two miles from campus.
• In addition, a number of on-campus parking lots have been earmarked for Super Bowl parking in early February.
• Additional details in regards to parking and traffic control will be available on IUPUIJags.com closer to the day of game.