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INDIANAPOLIS - The IUPUI basketball team will host Summit League opponent Omaha (8-18, 5-8 Summit) on Saturday (Feb. 9) afternoon at 3 p.m. in a contest that can be heard on WNDE 1260 AM, WNDE.com and on the free iHeartRadio app as Scott McCauley (pxp) will call the action. His pregame coverage will begin at approximately 2:45 p.m..

IUPUI (6-19, 1-10 Summit) aims to break a nine-game losing streak, including a current four-game slide at home. The tough times continued for the Jaguars last Saturday following a 68-59 loss to Summit League leader Western Illinois inside The Jungle. 
 
IUPUI came out fighting and led for much of the first half. The Leathernecks took a six-point halftime lead, aided by a deep three from Remy Roberts-Burnett at the final buzzer.
 
The Jaguars continued to fight in the second half, led by senior leaders, Greg Rice and Sean Esposito. The backcourt duo combined for 22 of the team's 59 points and 10 assists, but were unable to push the Jaguars over the hump in the second half.
 
Junior Donovan Gibbs headlined the Jags scoring shooting 8-for-10 with 18 points and junior Michael Patton contributed 13 points, five boards and three blocked shots. 
 
Esposito was able to cut the deficit to three, 50-47, but a missed defensive assignment which led to WIU's Jack Houpt matching the trey and quashing the Jags' momentum.  Then one of the Jags' 12 turnovers led to a Roberts-Burnett layup and the Jags never got within five for the remainder of the game.
 
Head coach Todd Howard pointed to turnovers as the culprit, but says he continues to see some positive things. The Jags outshot the Leathernecks 48 percent to 46 percent and made eight threes to WIU's seven.
 
"Points off turnovers and second chance points were too much to overcome," Howard said.
 
Omaha has dropped two straight, including a Thursday night 68-50 loss at Western Illinois. Before that, Omaha dropped a 96-81 conference matchup at Oakland on Saturday, snapping a three-game winning streak in the process. In spite of the loss, the Mavericks continue to shoot well as a team, having hit better than 50 percent from the field in seven of their past 10 games.
 
Junior guard Justin Simmons tops the Mavs offense, averaging 16.2 points and 3.8 rebounds per game and leads the Mavs in steals (33). Fellow junior John Karhoff is another offensive player to watch, averaging 12.2 points and 3.9 rebounds per game. Karhoff leads the team in minutes played (28 per game) and field goal percentage (.504).  

IUPUI is 0-1 against Summit League newcomer Omaha. Omaha won the first meeting between the two schools, 90-76 on Jan. 10 in Omaha, Neb. The hot shooting Mavs knocked down 62.3 percent from the floor in the win.  Four Omaha players contributed double-digit scoring: Karhoff (20), CJ Carter (19), Justin Simmons (16) and Alex Phillips (15). 
 
IUPUI's Gibbs posted a career high 22 points and 10 rebounds in the defeat. The 6-foot-7 junior is averaging 16 points per game over the past four outings and shooting 69.2 percent from the floor during that stretch.
 
This year's Jaguars' have been crippled by injuries, leaving Howard with just seven healthy scholarship players. All three freshmen are sitting out the season and expected to redshirt while top returning scorer Ian Chiles is also lost for the year. Like Chiles, sophomore swingman Marcellus Barksdale is gone for the year with an injury. The team saw an even bigger loss when veteran John Hart was declared ineligible at the beginning of the spring semester.
 
Patton (13.4 ppg) and Gibbs (10.4 ppg), are the only two current Jaguars averaging double-digits while Gibbs also leads the team in rebounding (6.3 ppg). Senior guards Esposito and Rice have continued to boom of late with Esposito upping his scoring average to 7.2 points per game. Rice has escalated to 8.1 points and 3.6 assists per game and has played virtually every minute dating back to the Jan. 5 WIU game.