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INDIANAPOLIS - Senior center Mitch Patton led four Jaguars in double-digits with a game-high 14 points and sophomore Marcellus Barksdale added 13 points, five boards and a career-high eight assists as IUPUI rolled past Denver, 59-49 on Thursday (Feb. 13) night. IUPUI led the entire second half and shot better than 54 percent from the floor while limiting the Pioneers to just 40 percent.

Junior Khufu Najee and freshman Elijah Ray both scored 12 points apiece in the win. Chris Udofia led Denver (12-12, 5-4 Summit) with 13 points and five assists in the loss. The 49 points allowed were the fewest by an IUPUI foe this season and the least since holding UMKC to 48 on Mar. 2 of last season. 

"It feels great - the guys have worked really hard for this," IUPUI Head Coach Todd Howard said. "When you shoot (63) percent in the second half, you're able to set your defense and when you set your defense, you can get stops. We got good shots tonight and had some great possessions.

"I thought it was a 38 to 40 minute effort against a really good team - maybe the hottest team in our league."

IUPUI (6-21, 1-9) closed the first half with a 7-2 run to take a 25-20 halftime lead, but continued to build on to start the second half. The rally grew to 17-5 spanning the two halves when Barksdale picked off a pass near midcourt and lobbed a pass ahead to Najee, who threw down a two-handed dunk with just more than 14 minutes to play. 

From there, any time Denver made any semblance of a run, the Jaguars had a near immediate answer. 

Five quick Denver points made it 35-28 with 12:16 left, but IUPUI responded with a Ray triple and Patton layup off a nice find by Barksdale. DU's Cam Griffin came back with a three-point play after an IUPUI turnover near midcourt, but this time Donovan Gibbs stroked a wing three for his lone field goal of the night. 

Ray turned in a key play with just more than three minutes left with the Jags up 49-41, helping ice the win. The Jaguars drained the shot clock completely before freshman Justus Stanback missed a contested three from the right wing. However, Ray sprinted along the baseline and threw the ball behind his back off a Denver player, giving the Jaguars possession and a fresh 35 on the shot clock. On the resulting possession, Barksdale hit Stanback for a layup along the baseline, pushing the lead back to double-digits. Denver never got within two possessions the rest of the night as the Pios methodical Princeton-style offense made scoring quickly a near impossibility. 

Denver hit just 9-of-25 (36 percent) second half field goal tries and were just 6-of-19 (31.6 percent) from three-point range. DU's top sniper, reigning Summit League Player of the Week Brett Olson, closed with just 10 points on 3-of-12 shooting. Jalen Love added eight points on a pair of triples before fouling out. As expected, Denver had assists attached to nearly every basket, collecting 14 helpers on 18 buckets, but more often than not, the Jaguars' defense locked up the Pioneers. Aside from Udofia's 6-of-10 effort, no other Denver player made more than half of their first goal attempts. 

Conversely, Barksdale seemed largely unfettered and knifed through a variety of Denver defensive looks, collecting the eight assists against no turnovers. The 6-foot-5 lead guard hit all four of his field goal attempts and 5-of-6 from the foul line in the win. Collectively, the Jags turned it over just nine times total and outscored Denver 10-8 in points off turnovers. 

Patton was 5-of-9 on the inside and swatted three shots and Ray was 4-of-6 overall in his first career start. The 6-foot-6 Gary, Ind.-native grabbed a game-high six boards as IUPUI won the glass for just the sixth time this season, 27-23. Both Gibbs and Patton closed with four boards each and all seven Jaguars grabbed at least two caroms. For Patton, it was his 45th career double-digit scoring game and career-best seventh-in-a-row. 

Thursday's win snapped a nine-game losing skid to open Summit League play. 

"We end the year with three of five (games) at home. We talk about some team is going to get really good in February and it might as well be us," Howard said. "We're working towards that."

IUPUI improved to 1-1 against Denver, playing its first season in The Summit League. 

The Jaguars will continue the three-game homestand on Saturday (Feb. 15) when the Jaguars host South Dakota at 2:00 p.m. Eastern inside The Jungle. The game can be heard on iHeartRadio as Will Flemming (pxp) and Manny Randhawa (analyst) call the action from courtside. In addition, the game can be seen via the IUPUI LIVE! subscription service on IUPUIJags.com. Tickets are available by contacting the Athletics Department at 317-274-5453.