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INDIANAPOLIS - The IUPUI basketball team will continue its three-game homestand on Thursday (Feb. 28) when the Jaguars host South Dakota (9-18, 4-10 Summit) in Summit League action. Thursday's game will be part two of a doubleheader and will tip-off at 7:30 p.m.. That contest can be heard on WNDE 1260 AM, WNDE.com and on the free iHeartRadio mobile app with Scott McCauley's (pxp) pregame coverage beginning at 7:15. The game can also be viewed through the IUPUI LIVE! subscription service with the video starting right at tipoff.

As always, IUPUI students are admitted for free with a valid JagTag. IUPUI will also be celebrating the annual Favorite Professor Night on Thursday as faculty and staff members have been hand picked by student-athletes from all 16 varsity sports to be recognized at halftime of both basketball games.

The Jaguars (6-23, 1-13 Summit) are coming off a heart breaking 95-88 double overtime loss to Milwaukee on Saturday (Feb. 23), which ran IUPUI's current losing streak to 13. Junior P.J. Hubert hit two key triples in the final two minutes on Saturday to help force overtime and senior Greg Rice came up with a key defensive stand on the last possession of regulation to ensure free basketball. In the first overtime, IUPUI had a chance to win the game on the final possession, but Rice strong armed a layup at the final horn. In the second overtime period, IUPUI scored the initial basket before Milwaukee closed the game with nine straight points.

Rice finished with a career-high 23 points and seven boards in a full 50 minute effort. His backcourt mate, senior Sean Esposito closed with 22 points, seven rebounds and a career-high seven assists while also playing all 50 minutes. Hubert scored 16 on 6-of-11 shooting and Mitchell Patton had 11 points and eight rebounds before fouling out. The Jaguars' fifth starter, Donovan Gibbs, added a career-high 15 rebounds to accompany nine points and a career-best five assists. Both Esposito and Patton scored their 500th career points during Saturday's loss.

IUPUI shot 46.6 percent from the floor and outrebounded Milwaukee 50-43 in the defeat. Milwaukee shot just 41 percent overall, but connected on 13-of-32 three-point attempts (40.6 percent), led by Jordan Aaron's 28-point effort. Aaron hit 7-of-14 from three-point range, including 5-of-8 in the first half. UWM had three players finish with better than 20 points as both Demetrius Harris (21 points, nine rebounds) and Paris Gulley (20 points, seven rebounds) came off the bench to fuel a 44-7 scoring advantage.

Head Coach Todd Howard used just seven players on Saturday and had just nine at his disposal. The Jaguars are limited to just seven scholarship players in uniform as the season winds down as the three true freshmen have yet to clock a minute this year while junior guard Ian Chiles and sophomore swingman Marcellus Barksdale are both out for the season due to injuries. Senior John Hart was declared ineligible at the start of the spring semester, forcing the coaching staff to add former Indianapolis-prep star Kevin Rose to the active roster as a walk-on.

Patton leads the Jags in scoring (13.0 ppg) and blocked shots (24) and is second on the club in rebounding (5.1 rpg). The 6-foot-9 pivot is 16th nationally in field goal percentage (57.1 percent) and ranks second in The Summit League in shooting efficiency. Behind him, Gibbs checks in at 10.3 points and 6.5 boards per game while Rice is at 8.8 points and 3.6 assists a night. Esposito recently upped his scoring average to 8.0 points per game and has hit a team-high 52 treys this year.

South Dakota stopped its six-game losing streak with an 85-74 win at Montana State last Saturday as part of the Ramada Worldwide BracketBusters event. Senior guard Juevol Myles leads the Coyotes in scoring (15.3 ppg), assists (78), steals (36) and minutes (31.8 mpg), while having hit 43 treys in 27 games. Up front, Trevor Gruis is netting 11.5 points and 5.8 boards per game and Brandon Bos checks in at 11.2 points and 3.7 caroms per game. Casey Kasperbauer is the team's top freshman, tallying 8.8 points per game on a team-high 58 treys.

USD won the first meeting between the two schools, 88-68 on Dec. 1 in Vermillion, S.D.. Myles scored 26 (9-14 FG, 3-6 3's, 5-5 FT) in that contest and both Bos and Gruis tallied 16 each. Hart was the lone IUPUI player to reach double-figures, scoring a game-high 29 (12-25 FG, 5-14 3's) in the defeat.

IUPUI was outrebounded 42-27 in the loss and hit just 39.7 percent from the floor while allowing the hosts to connect on nearly 53 percent overall. USD leads the all-time series, 2-1, but the Jaguars dominated last year's contest in Indianapolis by an 88-70 score.