WASHINGTON, D.C. - The IUPUI basketball team had lengthy scoring droughts in both halves as the Jaguars fell 57-47 at Howard in their opener of the four-game Gotham Classic on Monday night (Dec. 15). James Daniel, III led Howard (6-6) with 18 points in the win while no Jaguar reached double-digits. Freshman Leo Svete tallied a team-high nine points and Marcellus Barksdale added eight points, all after halftime. The junior also finished with a team-high seven boards and three steals to help offset an 0-of-5 shooting night. 

The loss was the Jaguars' sixth straight, four of which have come away from home.

After falling behind 28-19 at the half, the Jaguars were outscored 10-4 to start the second stanza to fall into a 38-23 hole. However, IUPUI (2-8) fired back with a 14-1 run, beginning with a Mason Archie, II three ahead of a D.J. McCall layup. Svete added two treys to help cap the run, cutting Howard's lead back to 39-37 with 9:17 left. The Jags never fully got over the hump though as IUPUI missed on two potential game-tying attempts, the second of which directly resulted in a James Carlton three-point play in transition. Carlton's three-point play sparked a 10-0 run to put the hosts back in front by 12 as the Jaguars went more than five minutes without a point.

The Jaguars did fire one last counterpunch. 

McCall putback an Archie miss to start a 7-0 burst to make it 49-44 with under two minutes to play. Archie erupted for a transition dunk to pull the Jaguars within five, but was hit with a technical foul for taunting a Howard defender after the basket, squashing IUPUI's momentum. Daniel split the two ensuing free throws and Howard scored the game's next six points to seal the outcome. 

IUPUI hurt its own comeback attempt by going just 13-of-23 at the foul line and just 7-of-17 in the second half after making all six first half tries. The Jaguars came in among the nation's most reliable teams at the foul line at 74 percent. 

"It's disappointing because we had our chances," IUPUI Head Coach Jason Gardner said. "We had some careless turnovers and missed a lot of free throws. Those are things you can't do and expect to win. We missed some shots that we should make. We spent a lot of time playing from behind again tonight, rather than getting in front and playing with the lead. It's really hard to always be playing from behind because it takes a lot of energy to get back even."

The two teams traded the lead back-and-four time in the first half with IUPUI's final lead coming at 13-12 at the 11:15 mark on a Svete trey. This time around, IUPUI went scoreless for nearly seven minutes as Howard built a 24-13 lead over that stretch. 

The Jaguars finished at just 28.3 percent from the field and 4-of-26 (15.4 percent) from three-point range. Senior DavRon Williams and sophomore Josh James were the only Jags to finish at better than 50 percent from the floor as both hit 2-of-3 field goal tries. Howard shot 42 percent overall and 4-of-14 (28.6 percent) from deep. Carlton scored 17 points for the Bison and Marcel Boyd grabbed a game-high 13 rebounds, including 11 off the defensive glass. 

IUPUI will return home to the Indiana Farmers Coliseum on Saturday as the Jaguars will host South Alabama in game two of the Gotham Classic. The game will tipoff at 1:00 p.m. and will be televised on HTSN and ESPN3 as Greg Rakestraw (pxp) and Hall of Famer Bob Lovell (analyst) call the action from courtside. The game will be heard on WNDE 1260 AM and iHeartRadio as Morgan Adcock (pxp) calls the action. Tickets are available by contacting the Coliseum box office or any Ticketmaster outlet. Fans in attendance will be able to pose with a replica of the 2015 NCAA Basketball championship trophy and the 2014 IUPUI men's cross country team will be recognized during the first half of the contest. In addition, Junior Jaguar members will be invited down on the court following Saturday's game to shoot baskets and meet-and-greet selected IUPUI players.