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INDIANAPOLIS - The 38th season of IUPUI women’s basketball begins on Saturday, Nov. 10, when the Jaguars host Grace College at Noon inside The Jungle.
 
GAMEDAY INFORMATION

• The Jaguars and Lancers meet at Noon on Saturday, Nov. 10, for the first meeting all-time between the two schools.
• The game can be heard on www.IUPUIJags.com and Jon Schade will have the call beginning at 11:55 a.m.
• The game can also be viewed via IUPUI Live! on www.iupuijags.com.

 
ABOUT GRACE COLLEGE

• Last season, Grace capped off its best season in program history and earned its first winning season in 20 years after finishing with a 20-15 record.
• So far this season, the Lancers are off to a 4-0 start defeating Indiana Tech, Indiana Southeast, Indiana South Bend and Holy Cross (Ind.).
• Juaneice Jackson leads Grace in scoring averaging 18.0 ppg, which included a 22-point performance in its season opener.
• Allison Kauffman paces the squad on the glass corralling 8.0 rpg.
• Through four games, Grace is shooting at a 40.3 percent clip from the floor, and has scored 70 or more points in three of its four wins.

 
LAST TIME OUT ...

• From the start, the IUPUI women’s basketball team went up and down the floor and scored 54 points off 45 Franklin College turnovers resulting in a 94-34 exhibition win over the Grizzlies on Monday, Nov. 5 at The Jungle.
• “I thought the kids did a good job, especially after we subbed and that second wave really pushed the tempo, got in the passing lanes, and played the way we want to play,” head coach Austin Parkinson said. “We talked about getting up in the passing lanes and being aggressive because we said if you are not going to do your job, somebody will. We played a lot of people tonight and I was pretty pleased with the effort.”
• In addition to forcing 45 turnovers, IUPUI’s up-tempo style resulted in the Jags connecting on 35 of 77 shots, with 11 of those buckets coming on fast-break opportunities.
• Dee-Dee Bellamy paced the Jaguars offensively scoring 19 points on 7-of-9 shooting from the floor, and added six boards. Five of Bellamy’s six rebounds came on the offensive end of the floor.
• “Dee-Dee is very fast and tonight I thought she used her speed but played under control.” Parkinson said. “She’s made some improvement on her mid-range game, took good shots, and really disrupted things defensively. When she plays that hard and rebounds like she does, she has a big impact on how the game is played.”
• The other lone Jaguar to score in double figures was true freshman Akilah Sims, who scored 13 points on 6-of-11 shooting in her first game in an IUPUI uniform.
• Alongside Sims, DeAirra Goss, Jordan Barton, Nicole Rogers and Shawnece Teague all saw their first action as Jaguars. Goss scored nine points, dished out three assists and had three steals.
• “I thought Akilah Sims really set the tone early with her rebounding and aggressiveness,” Parkinson added. “She got on the glass early and I think scored in double figures at the half, so it’s always nice to see that.
• “Nicole Rogers struggled from outside, but I liked how aggressive she was. DeAirra is going to be a really good player for us and we didn’t have to play her as much tonight, but I’m sure as we get going and get into more competitive games that she’ll be a factor,” Parkinson said.
• Out of the gates, IUPUI’s height proved to be a huge factor and ultimately IUPUI outscored Franklin 54-20 in the paint. Nevena Markovic, Clara Mitchell and Alyssa Holder combined to score 17 points, grab 16 boards and record six steals in 35 minutes of play, with Markovic posting a game-high nine rebounds.

 
RETURNING FOR MORE

• IUPUI returns 10 players from last year’s roster that earned nine more wins than the previous season.
• Headlining that group is Kerah Nelson, who was named a First-Team All-Summit League performer after averaging 16.2 ppg and 6.2 rpg.
• Katie Comello emerged as a double-figure scorer for IUPUI in her first season in a Jaguar uniform averaging 10.1 ppg, while leading the team in 3-pointers made. Comello was a Summit League All-Newcomer Team selection.
• Nevena Markovic had a memorable rookie season for the Jaguars in 2011-12 averaging 8.9 ppg, 5.5 rpg and 1.7 rpg. For her efforts, she was named the CollegeSportsMadness.com Summit League Freshman of the Year.
• With the departure of Emily Phillips due to graduation, the Jaguars have a pair of veterans ready to step in and play big minutes at the guard position. Dawn Luster and Dee-Dee Bellamy both played big minutes for the Jags a season ago with Luster averaging 6.0 ppg and 3.4 apg in conference-only games, while collecting a team-high 37 steals.
• Parkinson refers to Bellamy as one of the best on-the-ball defenders that he has ever coached and Bellamy does all of the little things that don’t show up on the stat sheet to help the team get wins.
• Clara Mitchell enters her senior season and really emerged as a post presence during the 2011-12 season. Not only is she the Jaguars top post defender, but she averaged 5.2 ppg and 4.6 rpg for IUPUI as a junior.
• Alyssa Holder and Claire Holba also return and both gave IUPUI depth at the forward position a season ago. Holba averaged 1.4 ppg, while Holder averaged 1.1 ppg and both grabbed 0.8 rpg.

 
TRANSFERS AND REDSHIRTS

• In addition to the eight players that saw action last season, IUPUI had four players sitting out due to NCAA transfer rules or redshirting.
• Alex Thompson played in the first two games of the season before redshirting due to injury and in her brief time with the team a year ago, she led the team in rebounding in her two games as a guard.
• Demetria Nunley-Lash also sat out last season via redshirting and has the athleticism to guard both forwards and guards.
• DeAirra Goss will dress in the IUPUI uniform for the first time this season after transferring in from Western Michigan and she has the ability to slash and score off the dribble.
• Finally, Jordan Barton transferred in from St. Mary of Woods a season ago and has been IUPUI’s most consistent player in preseason practice this year according to Parkinson.

 
NEW FACES

• The Jaguars have four new faces on the roster this season in three true freshmen and a transfer.
• The three true freshmen all hail from the state of Indiana in Nicole Rogers, Akilah Sims and Shawnece Teague.
• Shanika Maddox comes to IUPUI from Coastal Carolina and will have two years of eligibility remaining after sitting out the 2012-13 season due to NCAA transfer rules.
• Rogers Finished her career with 1,593 points, ranking her second all-time in the history of Howard County girls basketball. As a senior, she averaged 21.1 ppg, 8.2 rpg, 2.3 spg and 1.2 bpg, was named a Hoosier Basketball Magazine Top 60 Senior, played in the 2012 North/South Indiana All-Star Basketball Classic and earned Kokomo Times All-Area Most Valuable Player award for the second time.
• Rogers was a three-time all-conference selection, a three-time all-area selection, and was an IBCA Underclass First-Team All-State selection as a junior.
• Sims was rated the No. 24 player at her position by ESPN HoopGurlz after averaging 23.0 ppg and 12.2 rpg and 3.8 spg as a senior. She was an IBCA All-State Senior First-Team selection, a second-team AP Indiana All-State selection and was the winner of the 2012 Tiffany Gooden Award, the area’s biggest basketball honor given to the SAC’s best player, male or female.
• In addition to playing in the Indiana/Kentucky All-Star Game, Sims was a Hoosier Basketball Magazine Top 60 Senior.
• Teague started at the center position for Ben Davis since her freshman year and helped the Giants capture two state championships, a sectional and regional title as a senior, and was an integral part of the Giants’ 81-game win streak spanning from 2009-11, the longest in state history in both boys and girls basketball.
• She helped the Giants post a 24-1 as a junior while averaging 4.5 ppg, 4.0 rpg, and blocking a team-best 33 shots.
• Maddox played in 41 games, making 28 starts in two seasons at Coastal Carolina and led the team in rebounding averaging 7.1 rebounds per game as a sophomore. She also was the team’s third-leading scorer averaging a shade under 7.0 points per game.

 
PRESEASON SUMMIT LEAGUE POLL

• The IUPUI women’s basketball team was picked to finish fifth in the Summit League Women’s Basketball Preseason Poll released in October
• Kerah Nelson was voted to the Preseason All-League First-Team, while Katie Comello was named to the second-team.
• South Dakota State was picked to finish first overall and accumulated 330 points, while Kansas City, the Summit League runner-up last year, was picked second. Oakland was tabbed third, North Dakota State fourth, and IUPUI was fifth with 213 points, including one first-place vote.
• Rounding out the poll was South Dakota in sixth, Western Illinois in seventh, Fort Wayne in eighth, and league newcomer Omaha in ninth.
• Oakland’s Bethany Watterworth was selected as the league’s Preseason Player of the Year and joined Nelson on the Preseason First-Team along with UMKC’s Kim Nazianya and Eilise O’Connor, South Dakota State’s Ashley Eide and North Dakota State’s Katie Birkel.
• Nelson led IUPUI in scoring and rebounding as a junior averaging 16.2 ppg and 6.2 rpg en route to being named a first-team all-conference performer for the first time in her career. Nelson accumulated 518 points on the season, placing her sixth on the IUPUI single-season points chart in addition to becoming IUPUI’s single-season points leader in the Division I era.
• Comello earned Summit League All-Newcomer Team honors last season after averaging 10.1 ppg and she ranked eighth in the league in assists (3.1), seventh in 3-point field goals made (1.7) and sixth in assist-to-turnover ratio (1.2). Her top performance of the season came against Oral Roberts on Jan. 14, scoring a career-high 28 points, which included six three-pointers.
• Comello was joined on the second team by North Dakota State’s Janae Burich, Omaha’s Paige Frauendorfer, Western Illinois’ Saule Kontautaite and Oakland’s Zakiya Minifee.
• IUPUI finished with a 13-19 record in 2011-12, a nine-win improvement from the previous season. In Summit League play, the Jags went 7-11 to place fifth.

 
JAGS ON TV

• In addition to having all of its home games available for viewing online through IUPUIJags.com, the Jags will be on television three times during the 2012-13 season.
• On Nov. 23, the Jaguars will be on BTN.com when they take on the Indiana Hoosiers in Bloomington, Ind.
• Additionally, the Jags will be on television back-to-back games beginning with an appearance on HTSN on Dec. 18, at home against Butler.
• HTSN is available via cable and over the air, reaching more than a million homes in Central Indiana.
• The final regular-season televised game will be on Dec. 21 at Purdue, as the Jags will be on the Big Ten Digital Network.