CINCINNATI, Ohio – The IUPUI basketball team had upset on its mind as it traveled to Xavier on Tuesday night (Dec. 9), but the host Musketeers outscored the Jaguars 39-20 after halftime to claim a 66-43 win at Cintas Center. Indianapolis-native Trevon Bluiett led two Xavier (7-2) players in double-digits with 12 points and Indiana-transfer Remy Abell added 11 for the victors.

Junior Marcellus Barksdale scored a team-high 10 points, all in the second half, in the loss.

IUPUI (2-6) was held to a season-low 43 points in dropping its fourth straight contest.

"I told the guys I was proud of how hard they played and how they came in here and battled," IUPUI Head Coach Jason Gardner said. "We did a good job of turning them over early and staying in the game, but we just really struggled to score baskets and part of that was our turnovers. It's hard to win when you turn it over 22 times.

"I don't fault our effort – we played really hard against a tough opponent tonight. We just need to cut down on the turnovers to give ourselves a chance to win games."

Xavier was more careless with the basketball in the early going as IUPUI built an early 10-3 lead, including an 8-0 run fueled by four XU miscues. Xavier turned the tables and finally went ahead 19-17 when Dee Davis swished a corner three, but IUPUI hung tough and trailed just 27-23 at the half.

However, the second half was another story.

Senior DavRon Williams made it a two-point game on a layup with 18:38 to play, but the Musketeers came back with a 24-4 explosion to turn a tight game into a runaway in a 10 minute span. The turning point came when Xavier made threes on three consecutive trips, coming from J.P. Macura, Abell and Davis to make it 40-27 with 15:10 to play. Even after Gardner called timeout, the Jaguars were unable to squash the home team's momentum.

Sophomore Elijah Ray briefly stopped the bleeding with a putback, but XU scored the next 11 points before Barksdale broke the spell with 10:10 left. The Jaguars never truly threatened from there as IUPUI fell to 0-5 all-time against Xavier.

"They're a good team and a good program. That's most likely an NCAA Tournament team right there and I thought we did a good job of coming into a tough environment and weathering an early storm," Gardner said. "There's something to be said for that.

"We're still learning and improving."

IUPUI finished the night shooting just 35 percent from the floor and 1-of-14 (7.1 percent) from three-point range. Freshman Leo Svete has IUPUI's lone make from the right wing in the game's early going.
After being held to a season-low 27 first half points, Xavier warmed up to finish the game shooting 54 percent from the floor and 5-of-13 (35.7 percent) from three-point range. The two teams combined for 40 turnovers and 34 points off turnovers as the game never truly found a flow.

"A lot of the shots are shots that we usually make. We got some good looks, they just didn't always go down," Gardner said.

The key difference was XU's 16-0 advantage on fast break points.

Barksdale went 5-of-9 overall, but was limited to just 25 minutes due to foul trouble. Williams chipped in six points and a game-high eight boards while Aaron Brennan, D.J. McCall and Ray also scored six points. P.J. Boutte was held scoreless on three shot attempts, but handed out a team-high four assists against four turnovers.

IUPUI will return home to face Eastern Kentucky on Saturday (Dec. 13) at Indiana Farmers Coliseum at 1:00 p.m. Eastern. Tickets are available by visiting the Coliseum box office or any Ticketmaster location and the game will be televised on HTSN and ESPN3 as Greg Rakestraw (pxp) and Bob Lovell (analyst) call the action. The game will also be heard on WNDE 1260 AM as Will Flemming (pxp) is on the call.