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MALIBU, Calif. - After having spent the Christmas holiday on the West Coast, the IUPUI basketball team will look for a late present when the Jaguars take on Pepperdine (7-3) in the fourth and final leg of the 2014 Gotham Classic. IUPUI (3-9) comes in at 1-2 thus far in the Gotham Classic with a home win over South Alabama and road losses at Howard and Richmond. 

IUPUI just missed pulling a stunner at Richmond on Tuesday (Dec. 23) before eventually falling to the Spiders, 57-53. The Jaguars used a 21-3 run spanning the two halves to take a four-point second half lead, but couldn't quite seal the deal as Mason Archie, II missed a potential game-tying jumper with five seconds to play. Archie scored a team-high 12 points in the loss while sophomore Elijah Ray joined in him in double-digits with a season-high 11 points on 5-of-8 shooting. Richmond came in ranked No. 42 nationally in the RPI. 

Saturday's game will be the second meeting all-time between the two schools as IUPUI won the previous meeting, 76-72 on Dec. 30, 2003 in Honolulu, Hawai'i in the third-place game of the Rainbow Classic, despite playing without its top player, Odell Bradley. The Jaguars hit 12-of-23 from three-point range, all coming from the trio of Akeem Clark, Brandon Cole and Blair Crawford, while current Associate Head Coach Matt Crenshaw turned in 12 points and eight assists in the win. 

Saturday's contest is the second of five straight road games that will take the Jaguars to five different states and three different time zones. IUPUI's hectic travel schedule has run from Indianapolis to Richmond, Va., followed by a cross country flight to Los Angeles. Following Saturday's game, IUPUI will fly back east to North Carolina before heading to Indianapolis and trekking up I-69 to open Summit League play in Fort Wayne on Jan. 4. The Jags will then fly back west to Tulsa, Okla., to play Oral Roberts before The Summit League home opener against Denver on Jan. 10. 

QUICK HITTERS
- Today's game is IUPUI's fourth and final leg of this year's Gotham Classic - a tournament that has seen the Jaguars travel more than 6,500 miles over a 12-day stretch. IUPUI's travel schedule will continue with a flight back east tomorrow to North Carolina as the Jaguars will take on North Carolina Central in non-conference action on Dec. 29.  
- IUPUI has had nine different leading already scorers this year. Mason Archie, Marcellus Barksdale, Leo Svete (three times) and DavRon Williams (twice) are the only Jags to have led the team in scoring in more than once. 
- Nearly 45 percent of IUPUI's points have come from the bench this season, including a season-high 44-point effort at Purdue. All total, IUPUI has 11 players averaging between 2-9 points per game. 
- IUPUI has averaged just 53.7 points per game in the three previous Gotham Classic games while yielding just 59.7 points per game contest. IUPUI has yet to allow more than 65 points in this years Gotham Classic. 
- Today's game is the first-ever meeting between Richmond and IUPUI on the hardwood.   
- This marks the 43rd season of IUPUI basketball, beginning with the 1972 campaign.
- IUPUI will play every home game at the Indiana Farmers Coliseum this season in year one of a five-year pact. IUPUI last played home games at the Coliseum from 1975-79. The building was home to the Indiana Pacers from 1967-74.  
- More than half of IUPUI's 13-man roster is newcomers this year. All total, the Jaguars welcome seven new faces this year with four Division I transfers and three true freshmen.  

FIVE COUNT - QUICK TIDBITS FROM THE LAST GAME
Richmond 57, IUPUI 53 - Dec. 23 - Richmond, Va. (Robins Center)
NEAR MISSES
    IUPUI just missed a benchmark win, falling at Richmond (No. 42 RPI) 57-53 just prior to the Christmas holiday. After trailing by as many as 14 in the first half, the Jaguars used a 21-3 run to lead midway through the second half. The game had six second half lead changes before the Spiders eventually held on for a four-point win. Junior Mason Archie misfired on a potential game-tying 16-footer with :05 left before Richmond's Trey Davis rebounded the miss and sank two free throws to cap the scoring. 

RETURN OF KHUFU
    Senior Khufu Najee made his first appearance in more than a month, pumping in eight points (3-6 FG, 2-2 FT), three rebounds and an assist in 20 minutes off the bench. The Berkeley, Calif.-native missed seven straight games due to an injury before returning on Tuesday. Najee scored six of his eight in the final 3:22 of the contest, hitting 3-of-4 attempts in crunch time. 

SEASON LOWS
    IUPUI came in among the nation's leaders in steals at more than nine per game, but collected just one on Tuesday. On the flip side, the Jaguars turned it over a season-low 10 times against the Spiders. 

RAY STARTS THE RUN
    Sophomore Elijah Ray had a personal 7-0 run to close the first half of Tuesday's game, sparking the 21-3 run. The Gary, Ind.-native finished with a season-high 11 points (5-8 FG, 1-3 FT).  

JUSTUS SERVED
    Sophomore Justus Stanback made his second start of the year and scored a season-high six points (3-3 FG). 

UNCOMMON BALANCE
    Eleven different IUPUI players are averaging between two and 9 points per game through 12 games, led by Marcellus Barksdale's 9.0 points per game. IUPUI has already had nine different leading scorers (including ties). P.J. Boutte, Marcellus Barksdale, Leo Svete, D.J. McCall, DavRon Williams, Jalen McCallum, Elijah Ray, Mason Archie and Aaron Brennan have each led the squad in scoring in a game thus far. 
    IUPUI has nine players averaging at least 14 minutes per game as well. 

LOW LEADER
    Barksdale's 9.0 points per game scoring average would easily be the lowest total to lead the Jaguars in a single-season in program history. The lowest scoring output to lead the Jaguars in a season is 12.4 points per game by Charles Price in 2001-02. 

HITTING 70
    IUPUI is 3-0 this season when scoring at least 70 points and 0-9 when failing to reach that number. 

THE LAST TIME...
    IUPUI played Pepperdine on Dec. 30, 2003 in the third-place game of the Rainbow Classic in Honolulu, Hawaii, defeating the Waves 76-72. IUPUI hit 12-of-23 (52.2 percent) from three-point range in that game, despite playing without leading scorer Odell Bradley, who was injured the day prior in a loss to Hawaii. 
    Current Associate Head Coach Matt Crenshaw had 12 points (3-4 FG, 6-6 FT) and eight assists in the win while both Brandon Cole and Akeem Clark tallied 18 each and combined to hit eight treys. Little-used guard Blair Crawford may have come up with the biggest game of his college career, scoring 14 points (5-10 FG, 4-6 3's) in 21 minutes off the bench. 

44 STRAIGHT
    Junior Marcellus Barksdale has now started 44 straight games, dating back to the 2012-13 season opener. No other IUPUI player has started more than 12 straight games. Barksdale and Mason Archie are the only two Jags to start every game this season. 

MR. INDISPENSABLE
    While Gardner has shown a deep and versatile bench, the one constant for the Jaguars this season is junior guard Marcellus Barksdale. The 6-foot-5 veteran is playing nearly 34 minutes per game, ranking among the league's top players. Barksdale leads the team in scoring (9.0 ppg), free throws made (35) and steals (26) and is second in rebounding (4.4 rpg) and assists (2.1 apg).

BENCH PRODUCTION
    Through 12 games, IUPUI's bench has scored 325 of the team's 727 points, equivalent to 44.7 percent of the team's scoring. The IUPUI bench has outscored the opposition in 10 of the season's 12 games.

The full IUPUI Game Notes can be seen by clicking here