DES MOINES, Iowa - The IUPUI basketball team ran into an offensive buzzsaw and subsequently, saw its two-game winning streak snapped as Drake University shot down the Jaguars, 73-60 inside Knapp Center on Tuesday night (Nov. 25). The host Bulldogs shot 61 percent from the floor and built a 20-point second half lead en route to the 13-point win. 

Reed Timmer led Drake (1-3) with 12 points and 7-foot center Jacob Enevold contributed 10 points, 12 rebounds and four blocked shots on the inside. C.J. Rivers also scored in double-digits for Drake, hitting all five of his field goal attempts in an 11-point effort. 

Four different Jaguars scored a team-high eight points in the loss, including a career-high output from sophomore Jalen McCallum off the bench. Mason Archie, II, Elijah Ray and Aaron Brennan also scored eight each while Marcellus Barksdale had seven points, seven rebounds, four steals and three assists. Freshman guard Leo Svete also added seven points while DavRon Williams chipped in six points and three offensive boards off the bench.

IUPUI (2-3) had to tweak the starting lineup as senior Khufu Najee missed the game due to injury, leading to P.J. Boutte earning his first career start. Boutte, the team's leading scorer coming in, scored four points on 2-of-7 shooting on Tuesday. 

"It's really hard to win on the road, especially against a tough team from the Valley," Head Coach Jason Gardner said. "We knew it was going to be a tough game and we just didn't come out and match their toughness and intensity early. We had some guys play hard and give good effort, but I didn't always like our execution.

"We missed some opportunities to score in transition and those really came back to hurt us. That's something we've got to continue to improve on."

The Jaguars' frigid shooting put IUPUI in an early hole as the guests made just 3-of-15 to start the game. Drake led by as many as 15 before halftime after back-to-back Timmer drives, but the Jaguars closed the half with a 6-0 run. Brennan pumped in back-to-back layups during the run and Archie capped it with a tough runner along the baseline. 

Drake shot 68 percent from the field in the first half, but led just 34-25 at the break after the Jaguars made just 8-of-24 (33 percent) first half attempts. 

IUPUI cut Drake's lead down to seven when Boutte scored on a tough drive on the opening possession of the second half, but the Bulldogs countered with a decisive 13-0 run to all but bury the Jaguars. Drake's lead ballooned to 20 on a Trevor Berkeley hook with just more than 11 minutes to play and IUPUI got no closer than 10 the rest of the way. 

"It came down to they made shots and we didn't," Gardner said. "That was the ballgame, right there."

IUPUI finished the night hitting 37.5 percent overall and 4-of-17 (23.5 percent) from three-point range. Drake, which ranked among the national leader in three-point percentage coming in, was just 4-of-13 (30.8 percent) from deep. However, the Bulldogs used a distinctive height advantage to score in close. Both Enevold and Rivers were a perfect 5-of-5 from the field and Kory Kuenstling was 4-of-4 off the bench for nine points. The Drake frontline bullied the Jaguars for a 42-28 advantage in points in the paint.

DU's Gary Ricks had an impressive season debut after serving a three-game suspension to start the season, closing with nine points and a game-high five assists. 

The loss dropped the Jaguars to 1-2 all-time against Drake as the Bulldogs swept the home-and-home series that dated back to last season. IUPUI also fell to 0-2 against Missouri Valley Conference teams this season, joining the season-opening home loss to Indiana State. 

IUPUI will return home to host former longtime head coach Ron Hunter and his Georgia State squad on Saturday (Nov. 29) at 1:00 p.m. inside the Fairgrounds Coliseum. That game will be televised on HTSN as Greg Rakestraw (pxp) and Hall of Famer Bob Lovell (analyst) are on the call. In addition, the game will be heard on iHeartRadio as Morgan Adcock (pxp) will call the game from courtside. Tickets remain available by heading to the Coliseum box office or any Ticketmaster outlet.