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INDIANAPOLIS - Oakland junior sharpshooter Travis Bader scored a game-high 27 points and the Golden Grizzlies forced 19 IUPUI turnovers as the Jaguars fell 84-62 at Bankers Life Fieldhouse on Saturday (Dec. 29) afternoon.

Sophomore Jordan Shanklin led IUPUI (6-11, 1-3 Summit) with 17 points and junior #P.J. Hubert# added 14 in the loss.

IUPUI fell into an 18-0 hole in the game's first 4:09 and didn't get on the scoreboard until Cameron Loepker swished a 16-footer from just beyond the elbow more than five minutes into play. IUPUI Head Coach Todd Howard called two early timeouts to try and stop the run before eventually pulling the ineffective starters in favor of four reserves. The 18-point deficit could've been worse but OU's Corey Petros missed six freebies in the first eight minutes before later going to the sidelines with two early fouls. With Petros on the bench, the Jaguars slowly crept within eight at the 9:29 mark when Mitchell Patton hit a baseline jumper, but the Jaguars still trailed 42-32 at the break.

"I've been in a lot of games and an 18-0 start is as incredible as I've seen," Howard said. "We battled back multiple times to slice it to eight or nine, but not having Greg (Rice) really hurt us.

"Turnovers were completely to blame for our ills. We had too many no shows and that's hard to do when you're not at full strength."

IUPUI turned the ball over 13 times in the opening 20 minutes, leading to 18 Oakland (6-9, 1-1 Summit) points.

The second half began with the Jaguars getting needed defensive stops, but was unable to capitalize at the other end. The Jaguars missed their first two field goal attempts before senior John Hart made it a nine-point game by splitting a pair of free throws. IUPUI continued on the attack, drawing eight Oakland fouls in the first two minutes, but was unable to parlay that into a free throw advantage.

Momentum hung in the balance early in the second half when OU's Ryan Bass was called for a flagrant foul for intentionally elbowing Shanklin in the chin during an out of bounds play. Bass's whistle was one of eight Oakland fouls in the opening two minutes of the second stanza.

With IUPUI trailing by nine with two free throws and the ball forthcoming, Shanklin went empty at the line and the Jaguars turned the ball over on the ensuing possession.

IUPUI had three more empty trips, only to see Oakland counter with three of its own.

Oakland didn't score its first basket of the second half until Bader drilled a three at the 16:23 mark, but the Jaguars' second half shooting drought was even longer. The Jaguars finally connected at the 15:22 mark when Shanklin drove down the right side and flipped in a right-handed layup, cutting the lead back to 10 again. A Shanklin trey with 13:13 left made it a nine-point deficit, but OU immediately answered with five quick points to go back in front by double-digits.

The Jaguars cut the lead to 10 twice in the final 10 minutes, but Oakland fired off a late 10-0 run to end all doubts.

"The guys battled and got fouled a ton early in the second half, by design," Howard said. "We never capitalized once we drove.

"Today we faced a team that's been in too many battles."

Oakland shot 53 percent from the floor and 7-of-17 from three-point range with Bader connecting on 4-of-8 attempts. The Jaguars offense struggled to find rhythm as IUPUI shot less than 38 percent from the floor and finished with 19 turnovers. Hart, coming off a 26-point effort against Fort Wayne, was held without a field goal and turned the ball over eight times.

"Your starting perimeter going 0-for-10 with 10 turnovers hurts," Howard said. "The fact that we rallied was highly impressive, but that lack of production is always a killer."

IUPUI scored a season-high 45 bench points while the starters only provided 17 points.

Shanklin led three reserves in double-digits by hitting 5-of-10 shots and half of his three-point attempts, falling two points shy of tying his career-high of 19. The 6-foot Kentucky-native was pressed into extended action when Greg Rice left the game in the middle of the first half with an injury. Hubert also provided an offensive spark, hitting three treys in a career-high 32 minutes work. The 6-foot-9 Patton finished in double-digits, scoring 10 points and grabbing a team-high six boards in 19 minutes before fouling out.

Raphael Carter was a perfect 5-of-5 from the floor off the Oakland bench and tallied a career-high 12 points in 21 minutes. Petros added 10 points and seven rebounds while Drew Valentine finished with eight points, eight rebounds, seven steals and four assists.

The loss dropped IUPUI to 8-4 on the Indiana Pacers' home floor and snapped the Jaguars' five-game Bankers Life Fieldhouse winning streak.

IUPUI will put the capper on non-conference play on New Year's Day when the Jaguars head to College Park, Md. to take on the University of Maryland inside the Comcast Center. The first-ever meeting between the two schools is scheduled to tip at 3:05 p.m. and the game can be seen on ESPN3 with Byron Kerr (pxp) and Glenn Consor (analyst) on the call. There will be no radio/online broadcast of Tuesday's game.