Box Score Box Score (.pdf) | Box Score

KANSAS CITY – Kerah Nelson scored 14 of her game-high 20 points in the second half, but costly turnovers proved to be the difference as IUPUI fell to UMKC, 63-55, Saturday afternoon in Summit League action at the Swinney Recreation Center.

With the loss, IUPUI fell to 8-12 overall and 3-5 in conference play, while UMKC improved to 14-6 overall and 5-3 in league action.

Turnovers were a factor for the Jags as they committed 24 and they were outscored at the charity stripe 14-6. Nelson kept IUPUI in the game offensively with her 20 points and was joined in double figures by Emily Phillips and Nevena Markovic, who posted 12 and 11 points, respectively.

“Tonight we shot 37 percent, but we outrebounded them and we said coming in that last year we got blown out of here because we didn’t rebound. We competed, we played great defense. Now if you don’t have 24 turnovers you have a chance to win the game and we’ll try to get that corrected when we go to South Dakota,” said head coach Austin Parkinson.

“I thought Emily Phillips, after having several turnovers in the first half, bounced back in the second half and I liked her aggressiveness,” Parkinson added. “Kerah played pretty well to keep us in the game. I loved her leadership and I loved how positive she was.”

Both teams battled turnovers throughout the opening 20 minutes leading to a lack of flow offensively from each side. Markovic and Phillips kept the Jags in the game early combining to score nine of the Jaguars first 13 points as they trailed 15-13 at the 9:00 mark.

Over the next four minutes, IUPUI went cold from the field, while the Kangaroos started to find a rhythm offensively.

Beginning with an Emile Blakesley triple at the 8:46 mark, the Kangaroos connected on four of their next five three-point attempts in a 2:58 stretch and watched their lead quickly escalate to 12 points, 27-15.

Nelson, IUPUI’s leading scorer, struggled offensively missing her first three attempts from the field and her first two from the charity stripe before breaking the UMKC run with a bucket at the 3:41 mark and that seemed to get her going offensively.

Following that basket, Nelson scored four more points in the final minutes and IUPUI also got a fast break lay-up from #Del’Niqua Bellamy# allowing it to close the half on an 8-2 run as its deficit was trimmed to six, 30-24, entering halftime.

Despite shooting 4-of-18 in the opening nine minutes of the second half, UMKC miscues and missed opportunities kept the Jaguars deficit at six at the under-12 media timeout.

Triples by Markovic and Nelson offset a Dayon Hall-Jones jumper inching the Jags within two points, 42-40, with 7:37 to play.
Over the next five minutes, the pace picked up offensively. Following a pair of Hall-Jones free throws, a lay-up from Nelson and a floater on the next possession by Dawn Luster tied things up at 44.

After a quick Kangaroos spurt moved their lead back to five, 49-44, IUPUI continued to battle and used jumpers by Phillips and Nelson to help bring its deficit back within a possession, 50-48, with 4:08 to play.

Unfortunately for IUPUI, missed jumpers coupled with timely buckets for UMKC spurred a 7-0 run expanding the ‘Roos lead to 57-48, forcing Parkinson to burn a timeout with 2:16 on the clock.

From that point, the teams traded points and the Jags were unable to make a final surge resulting in a 63-55 defeat.

With the road loss, the Jaguars road losing streak moved to 34 games. IUPUI’s last road win came in the 2008-09 season finale at Western Illinois on Feb. 28, 2009. Despite the struggles on the road, Parkinson feels like getting that road victory is the next hurdle for his team to cross.

 “For us, we hadn’t swept a home series since 2008-09. We’ve taken that step beating Oral Roberts and Southern Utah last week. We have beaten two teams that were ranked in the Mid-Major Top 25. The next step for us is to win a road game. Now if we are going to do that, we are not going to be able to turn the ball over like we do.”

The Jaguars next travel to Vermillion, S.D., to take on South Dakota for the first time in program history on Monday, Jan. 23, at 8 p.m. ET. Scott Taylor will have the call on IUPUIJags.com beginning just prior to tip.