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INDIANAPOLIS – DeAirra Goss scored a game-high 26 points, but Akilah Sims and Dawn Luster scored three points in the final 12 seconds to lead an improbable comeback giving the IUPUI women's basketball team a 70-68 win over in-state and Summit League rival IPFW Saturday afternoon at The Jungle.

"I'm incredibly proud of our kids to be able to gut it out. We got a big lead in the second half, and then we got very careless with our turnovers and then they got really hot from outside and started making some shots," head coach Austin Parkinson said. "When that happened, it felt like the walls were caving in. Ultimately we were able to make enough plays, kind of stand our ground, and make some good plays down the stretch to win the game."

Goss scored 19 of her game high 26 points in the first half and had an opportunity to tie the game with under 20 seconds to go, but missed one-of-two opportunities from the free throw line that kept the Jags behind by one. Despite misfiring from the line, Dawn Luster and Akilah Sims picked up Goss and teamed up to score the Jaguars' final three points to secure the come-from-behind victory.

"DeAirra has been great and she had another big time performance. You got to look at the fact that she not only scores 26 points and hands out four assists, but she guards the other team's leading scorer and holds her to [below] her average. She is such a two-way player, which is big for us," Parkinson said. "Dawn had a careless stretch, but she made up for it there at the end by getting a steal and making that play to Akilah."

IUPUI was efficient on the offensive end of the floor for the first 20 minutes hitting 53.8 percent of its field goal attempts compared to 36.4 shooting for the Mastodons, but 14 IUPUI fouls in the first half resulted in the Mastodons outscoring the Jags 15-9 from the charity stripe to offset their shooting woes.

With the score tied at six early on, the Jags had four different players score during a 12-2 run that put them in front 18-8 with 11:11 to play.

The Jaguars cushion fluctuated between six and eight points for the next several minutes until an Amanda Hyde free throw closed IPFW within four, 27-23, with just under six minutes to play.

In the final minutes of the half, Goss scored six points, and Mikale Rogers and Shanika Maddox combined for five to offset some Mur Hagerman three's helping IUPUI take a 38-33 lead into the half.

Out of the half, two three's from Nicole Rogers kickstarted a 10-2 run over the first six minutes that boosted IUPUI's five-point halftime lead to 13 points, 48-35.

Five uncharacteristic turnovers and four Mastodons free throws started a run that dipped IUPUI's lead to single digits, 52-43, as the midway point of the half neared, but that turned into a 23-6 run that placed IPFW on top 58-54 with 6:25 remaining.

The Jags remained poised and used an old-fashioned three-point play from Sims with 3:30 remaining to regain a one-point lead at 62-61, but the see-saw ending began when Ariana Simmons hit a three and Seibert connected on two free throws to reestablish a 66-62 IPFW lead.

Nicole Rogers connected on a 15-foot baseline jumper to make it a one-possession game, 66-64, as the two-minute mark approached, before Luster drove and got a runner to fall with 1:37 on the clock to knot the score at 66.

However, after being held to just 4-of-13 shooting for the first 39 minutes, the Mastodons top offensive threat in Hyde buried a jumper from the left wing with 36 seconds left to give IPFW a 68-66 advantage.

On the other end of the floor, Goss drew a foul on Hyde – her fifth - and looked to tie things up, but missed the first free throw before making the second to bring IUPUI within one, 68-67. On the ensuing inbound, Luster stole the ball from behind Seibert in the backcourt corner, found Goss underneath the rim, and Sims grabbed Goss' miss and got the put back to go to quickly give the Jags a 69-68 lead with 12 seconds to go.

On the defensive end, IUPUI managed to get the ball back after forcing a jump ball with five seconds to play, and Luster hit one-of-two from the line after being fouled to move the lead to two, 70-68. Seibert got a look with under two seconds to go that would have sent the game into overtime, but it fell off the front of the iron giving the Jags the two-point victory.

IUPUI, who came into the game ranked second in field goal percentage in the Summit League behind IPFW, outshot the Mastodons 50.0-percent to 39.2-percent, but IPFW hit 91.3-percent of its free throws to outscore the Jags at the line 21-12.

The Jaguars did win the rebounding battle, 33-24, thanks in part to Nevena Markovic's game-high eight rebounds and Sims' seven. Markovic also joined Goss in double figures with 11 points.

With their brief three-game homestand now complete, the Jags will hit the road next week for a pair of games beginning on Thursday, Jan. 30, at Western Illinois. Tip is set for 8 p.m.