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BROOKINGS, S.D. - The IUPUI basketball team endured a cold spell over the latter portion of the first half and saw host South Dakota State take advantage as the Jackrabbits rolled to an 83-59 victory inside Frost Arena on Saturday (Feb. 8). 

Junior Khufu Najee led two Jaguars in double-digits with 19 points and senior center Mitch Patton tallied 12 points in just 19 minutes before fouling out. 

"We certainly caught the league's hottest team, but I don't care who you play, when you have five guys with two fouls in the first half, everything is a struggle," IUPUI Head Coach Todd Howard said. "I thought the whistle gave them a huge advantage early and rightfully so, we trailed early.

"Mitch and Khufu were very effective, but foul trouble limited five of our guys."

The SDSU (14-10, 6-3) frontcourt of Jordan Dykstra and Cody Larson combined to pump in 30 points and 11 rebounds and Brayden Carlson added 14 points and five boards in the win. 

IUPUI (5-21, 0-9) lost for the ninth straight time to start Summit League play, but hung around for much of the first half until hitting the brakes over the final seven minutes before halftime. Najee cut SDSU's lead to 23-18 with 7:03 remaining before the half, but the Jackrabbits scored six quick points to go ahead by 11 and force an IUPUI timeout. 

A 5-0 IUPUI burst got the Jaguars back within nine, but the Jacks slammed the door with a 10-4 run to close the half and take a 42-27 lead. 

Patton was held to just nine first half minutes after collecting two fouls, while freshman Justus Stanback played 10 minutes and gathered two fouls. Even reserves Elijah Ray and Josh James were both whistled for two first half fouls in a combined 17 minutes. 

IUPUI got within 13 early in the second half, but the Jackrabbits outscored the Jaguars 18-4 over a 5:33 stretch to put the game away. SDSU made 12 free throws during that span as foul trouble persisted for the Jaguars throughout Saturday's game.

The two teams were called for a combined 45 fouls, leading to 53 free throw attempts. SDSU hit 25-of-30 freebies, while IUPUI hit 18-of-23 attempts. 

IUPUI shot less than 31 percent from the floor in the first half before eventually warming to 36.5 percent for the game. Senior P.J. Hubert, making just his fourth start of the year, hit a pair of early treys, but IUPUI wouldn't hit again from the outside until Linwood Ross connected with 1:24 to play. 

South Dakota State used an inside-out attack to outscored the Jaguars 32-18 in the paint, while also hitting 8-of-19 (42.1 percent) from three. The Jacks also turned the ball over just four times, while the Jaguars were almost equally strong with the ball, committing just seven miscues.

Ray finished with nine points and six boards in 25 minutes off the bench and Barksdale added eight points and four boards from the point guard spot. Patton was 5-of-7 from the field and blocked the 75th and 76th shots of his career, but was unable to slow down Dykstra and Larson. Dykstra was 4-of-8 from the floor and a perfect 8-of-8 from the foul line, while Larson hit 5-of-12 shots and grabbed four of his seven boards off the offensive glass. 

IUPUI was without injured star Ian Chiles for the fifth straight game and senior guard Ja'Rob McCallum, who scored 15 on Thursday at North Dakota State, was unavailable on Saturday for personal reasons. 

"We'd love to have Ian and Ja'Rob's 30 points a game right now, but we don't," Howard said. 

Hubert, starting in place of McCallum, closed with six points and two assists. 

IUPUI will return home for a three-game homestand, beginning with Summit League newcomer Denver on Thursday (Feb. 13) night at 7:00 p.m. inside the Jungle. Prior to the game, the IUPUI Athletics Department will sponsor a live remote broadcast of the Query & Schultz Show at nearby City BBQ, just off campus on 11th St.. The show will air from 3-6:45 p.m. on 1260 WNDE, leading into Will Flemming (pxp) and Manny Randhawa (analyst) on the call of Thursday night's game. In addition, fans in attendance will receive free IUPUI Rally Towels, courtesy of Indiana Members Credit Union.