Box Score

CHARLESTON, Ill. – The IUPUI women’s basketball team held a four-point lead with a minute to play, but Eastern Illinois made two buckets in the final minute to force overtime before going a perfect 2-of-2 from the floor and 9-of-10 from the free throw line in the extra period to defeat the Jaguars, 71-60, Thursday evening at Lantz Arena.

The Jags were looking to improve to 5-2, which would have been IUPUI’s best start through seven games since joining the Division I ranks during the 1998-99 season, but the Jags (4-3) could not hold on late as EIU earned its fourth straight win in the all-time series.

“As a coach, you’re happy about the way we put ourselves in position to win the game on the road. But obviously, we’re very disappointed we weren’t able to close things out,” head coach Austin Parkinson said. “Hopefully, this will serve as a learning experience on how to handle late game situations in the near future.”

Kerah Nelson, who was a Preseason First-Team All-Summit League selection, played like an all-conference performer leading the Jags with a season-high 24 points, but as a team, IUPUI hit just of 2-of-23 shots from behind-the-arc and committed 22 turnovers allowing the Panthers to earn the come-from-behind win.

“The good part about this is we talked before the game about how hard it is to sweep road trips in the Summit League, so if we were able to do that this trip that would have been big for us,” Parkinson said. “Unfortunately, we came out on the short end of things. I was really happy with Kerah Nelson’s performance as she battled and played the way she’s capable of playing.”

The Jags got off to a slow start from the floor hitting just one their first eight shots from the floor until a Nelson fast-break lay-up with 11:45 to play in the opening half sent IUPUI into the under-12 media timeout trailing, 9-7.

The scoring continued to be at a premium until a Katie Comello triple with 8:17 to play gave IUPUI its first lead of the night, 13-11. After a Ta’Kenya Nixon jumper on the other end tied things up, a Clara Mitchell put-back off a Comello miss put the Jags back up by two, 15-13, with 7:25 to go.

A Nixon lay-up with 4:29 to play put cut the Panthers deficit to 19-16 with 4:29 to go, but the Jaguars managed to hold EIU scoreless for the next four minutes while using buckets from Demetria Nunley-Lash and Nelson on the offensive end of the floor to open up a 23-16 advantage with under 30 seconds to go.

Alece Shumpert came off the bench to bury a triple from the top of the key with 26 seconds remaining to cut the Jags lead to four, 23-19, but DeAirra Goss knocked down her first field goal of the game with one second on the clock to send the Jaguars into the half leading by six, 25-19.

After the Jags lead grew to 10 out of the break, 33-23, the Panthers quickly went on a 5-0 run to stay within striking distance with 14:40 on the clock.

However, Nelson took control over the next 4:31 scoring eight of IUPUI’s 11 points allowing the Jaguars to widen their lead to double-figures, 44-33.

Eastern Illinois switched things up defensively going from a man-to-man defense to a zone and the move paid off as the Panthers put together a 12-2 run to trim their deficit to one, 46-45, with 7:23 on the clock.

The EIU lead grew to as many as four, 52-48, at the 4:58 mark, but a free throw from Mitchell preceded an old-fashioned three-point play from Goss with 3:35 on the clock, which knotted things back up at 52.

IUPUI’s two seniors in Nelson and Mitchell delivered the next six points to open up a 58-54 lead with 1:48 to play, but two Mariah King buckets in the final 44 seconds coupled with a Jaguars turnover allowed the Panthers to tie the score at 58. Goss had a chance at the end of regulation to send the Jaguars home with a win, but her runner came up short sending the game to overtime.

IUPUI missed their first five shots of the overtime while Eastern Illinois went a perfect 2-of-2 from the floor and 4-of-4 from the line to take a 66-58 lead with 2:00 to play. The Jags got a bucket from Goss with 1:57 to go, but that was it for IUPUI and the Panthers went 5-of-6 down the stretch at the charity stripe to finish off the 71-60 win.

Comello and Goss also scored in double figures for IUPUI scoring 12 points apiece.

The Jaguars will have the weekend off before playing three home games in six days beginning with a game on Monday, Dec. 3, against Youngstown State. Monday’s tip between the Jags and Penguins is set to begin at 7 p.m.