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FARGO, N.D. - Typically, late February and early March is the time college basketball coaches are looking for their squads to peak as they begin the postseason chase. Unfortunately for Head Coach Todd Howard and the Jaguars, the bulk of this year's team is on the sidelines in street clothes.

The undermanned Jaguars saw their current losing streak hit 12 as IUPUI dropped a 75-39 decision to North Dakota State inside the Bison Sports Arena on Saturday (Feb. 16) night. Sophomore forward Lyonell Gaines provided the Jaguars with a bright spot off the bench, finishing with 14 points on 6-of-9 shooting.

Marshall Bjorklund and Kory Brown led NDSU (20-7, 11-4 Summit) with 12 points apiece as 10 different Bison cracked the scoring column. Lawrence Alexander hit for 10 points and four assists as NDSU shot 49 percent from the floor and outrebounded IUPUI (6-22, 1-13 Summit) 38-28.

IUPUI was limited to just 32.7 percent shooting and turned the ball over 15 times, while forcing just four NDSU miscues.

"It's hard when you don't make open shots," Howard said. "Ball movement was its usual self, but we missed too many (shots) and the empty trips hurt.

"Shorthanded means you need to play near flawless or above your potential, at least in stretches, and the story of this weekend was missed shots on the backend of execution."

IUPUI played nine players on Saturday with redshirt freshman Kevin Rose getting four minutes late in regulation. The 6-foot-6 forward joined the squad as a practice player in January and was recently cleared for game action. Rose netted his first collegiate bucket and grabbed three boards in his first-ever appearance.

"Hart, Chiles, Barksdale, Busby and Ray give us a different life," Howard said. "We just haven't had our team. This is a time (of year) where our group peaks. Well, we don't have our group (intact)."

After scoring the game's first bucket, NDSU reeled off six quick points and led the rest of the night. The lead swelled to 17-7 at the 13:00 minute mark of the first half when Chris Kading slammed home a putback of an Alexander miss, prompting Howard to call a timeout. IUPUI briefly stopped the bleeding with a Gaines six-foot fallaway jumper and a Hubert 27-footer from the right wing, but the Bison put the clamps on the Jaguars from there. IUPUI went scoreless for more than five minutes as the hosts pushed their lead from seven to 18.

NDSU took a 41-19 lead into halftime and continued to pile on early in the second half. Greg Rice came up with a steal and fast break layup for the first bucket after intermission, but NDSU scored the game's next nine points, largely aided by four IUPUI turnovers. The Bison led by as many as 43 in the second half before IUPUI closed the game with seven straight points to set the final margin.

IUPUI's starting frontline of Donovan Gibbs and Mitchell Patton was limited to just nine points and seven rebounds and hit 4-of-15 shots on Saturday. Gibbs had scored in double-digits in six straight games coming in, but turned it over six times in 29 minutes. Patton played 22 minutes and walked off gingerly in the second half after taking a spill along the baseline.

"When Mitch goes down, it just leaves way too many holes."

NDSU outscored the Jaguars 34-18 in the paint and 12-6 off second chance opportunities. Bjorklund, who came in among the nation's leaders in field goal percentage, was an efficient 5-of-7 from the floor and Jordan Aaberg chipped in six points and eight caroms off the bench.

IUPUI senior guard Sean Esposito was held scoreless, but grabbed a career-high eight rebounds and delivered a pair of assists. Gaines double-digit scoring effort was his first since the Jan. 1 loss at Maryland, when he also scored 14 points. IUPUI's 39 points on Saturday were the fewest in the program's history and NDSU claimed an easy season sweep of the Jaguars, winning the two meetings by a combined 74 points.

IUPUI will cap the regular season with three straight home games, beginning on Saturday, Feb. 23 when the Jaguars host Horizon League foe Milwaukee inside The Jungle in the Ramada Worldwide BracketBusters. That game will tip-off at 3:00 p.m.. IUPUI is 1-0 all-time in the BracketBusters event, having won at Nicholls State a year ago. That contest will be heard on WNDE 1260 AM, WNDE.com and the free iHeartRadio app and can also be viewed as part of the IUPUI LIVE! subscription service.