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OMAHA, Neb. - The IUPUI men's basketball team will embark on its final road trip of the 2013-14 regular season, beginning with Thursday's (Feb. 27) game at Omaha at 8:07 p.m. inside Ralston Arena. The game can be heard in Central Indiana on WNDE 1260 AM as Will Flemming (pxp) will be on the call from courtside. 

IUPUI (6-23, 1-11 Summit) comes in seeking its first-ever win over Omaha (15-13, 4-8), while the Mavs are coming in having lost four straight. 

The Jaguars have dropped two straight, including an 84-60 loss to Fort Wayne at home on Saturday. Junior Marcellus Barksdale had a team-high 13 points in the loss and both Khufu Najee and Donovan Gibbs added 11 each. The hot shooting Mastodons shot 65 percent overall, including hitting 72 percent after halftime in the victory. The 'Dons dominated the game on the interior, outrebounding the Jaguars 39-21 and outscoring IUPUI 46-26 in the paint.

However, a number of bright spots emerged in the loss as junior Ian Chiles returned to the Jaguars' rotation after more than a month's (seven games) absence. The 6-foot-1 guard had two points and three boards in 21 minutes off the bench. Barksdale continued his solid play, going his third straight game without a turnover while collecting 15 assists during that stretch. Up front, rookie forward Elijah Ray grabbed a team-high six boards and has led the Jags in rebounding in each of the past four games. The 6-foot-6 Ray is averaging 10.0 points and 4.8 rebounds per contest over the past six games. 

Omaha has hit the skids of late, dropping four straight by an average of 11.5 points per game. At Denver on Saturday, Omaha shot just 34.4 percent from the field and 3-of-15 from three-point range in a 72-60 loss to the Pioneers. Junior guard CJ Carter led Omaha with 12 points and five boards and Mike Rostampour contributed 10 points and nine boards. 

Carter leads UNO in scoring (13.7 ppg), threes made (44) and assists (3.4 apg) and is one of four Mavs averaging in double figures this season. John Karhoff (13.1 ppg), Devin Patterson (10.3 ppg) and Justin Simmons (10.0 ppg) all come in averaging double-digits while Mike Rostampour is the team's top rebounder at 6.7 per game. Six different UNO players have hit at least 20 threes this season as the Mavs have made 33 more treys than their opponents this season. 

Omaha won the earlier meeting between the two schools, 99-71 on Feb. 1 in Indianapolis as six different Mavs finished in double-digits. Patterson paced Omaha with 15 points, six boards and six assists as the Mavs collectively hit 12-of-23 (52.2 percent) from three-point range. Ray led the Jaguars with a game-high 19 points (7-of-11 FG) and Mitch Patton chipped in 14 points and six caroms. 

IUPUI is 0-3 all-time against Omaha after the Mavs entered The Summit League a season ago.