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INDIANAPOLIS – For 39 minutes, the IUPUI women's basketball team went toe-to-toe with the undefeated Indiana Hoosiers, but six free throws in the final 1:09 for Indiana allowed the Hoosiers to escape The Jungle with a 51-45 win Sunday afternoon.

"Effort-wise, we played great. We played really hard, the kids competed, we obviously outrebounded them and got up about 25 more shots than they did, but at the end of the day they played probably with more basketball smarts down the stretch than we did," head coach Austin Parkinson said.

Dee-Dee Bellamy and Dawn Luster combined to force Indiana's (11-0) leading scorer Larryn Brooks to 2-of-16 shooting, but the Jags (7-4) couldn't overcome 25.0 percent shooting to pick up the win.

"[Larryn Brooks] is a really good player and Dee-Dee and Dawn did great. She was 2-for-16, but she got 10 free throws – she got a lot of hope shots that she got bailed out on. But at the end of the day, she made that big shot late and that's what special players do," Parkinson added.

The Jaguars dominated the glass outrebounding IU 46-37, which included 24 offensive rebounds. Those extra possessions gave IUPUI 23 additional shots, but that resulted in just two more made field goals. Indiana did most of its scoring from the charity stripe and hit 84.6 percent of its free throws to outscore IUPUI, 22-9.

Each team experienced their own issues in the first 20 minutes with the Hoosiers battling turnovers and IUPUI struggling to get a basket to drop. The Hoosiers, who came in averaging 10 turnovers per game committed 13 in the first half, while the Jags were able to get up 13 more shots thanks in part to 15 offensive rebounds, but struggled shooting hitting just 25.0 percent of their looks.

Both teams executed some early sets to get into an offensive flow early, but it was Indiana that was able to take a five-point lead, 18-13, midway through the first half.

Once Indiana hit a bucket with 10:16 to move that lead to 18-13, both teams went cold from the field and managed to just hit two combined field goals over the next five minutes. Both field goals came from IUPUI to bring the Jags within a point, 20-19, with five minutes to go.

A Tabitha Gerardot lay-up with 2:36 to play put Indiana in front, 26-23, but both teams failed to score in the final two and half minutes allowing Indiana to enter the half with that three-point margin.

Two three's in the first 2:14 of the second half from Nevena Markovic offset two Larryn Brooks free throws to give the Jags a 29-28 lead, forcing an IU timeout. A lay-up by Akilah Sims preceded a three from Nicole Rogers with 13:12 on the clock to open a 34-28 Jags lead.

It took the Hoosiers a little more than 10 minutes to make their first field goal in the second half, but a basket and a free throw from Lyndsay Leikem tied the score at 34 with 9:53 remaining.

Just as the Hoosiers tied things up, a three from Comello followed by two free throws from Goss moved the lead back to five, 39-34, but Indiana cut that lead to one, 39-38, on a Brooks driving lay-up with 6:25 to play – her first field goal of the game.

With the score tied at 45 and less than 90 seconds to play, Sasha Chaplin hit two free throws to give IU a two-point lead, and two more free throws from Brooks with 23 seconds left gave Indiana a 49-45 cushion. A missed Goss lay-up on the other end was followed by two more Hoosiers free throws and that proved to be the difference as Indiana held on for the 51-45 win.

Markovic led IUPUI with 10 points, while Shanika Maddox paced the Jags on the glass with 10 boards. Bellamy led all players with a career-high four blocks.

The Jags return to action on Wednesday, Dec. 18, when they welcome Northern Kentucky to The Jungle. Tip is set for 5 p.m. and is the first game of a men's and women's doubleheader. The IUPUI men's team will play Nicholls State beginning at 7:30 p.m.