BROOKINGS, S.D. - The IUPUI basketball team needed more than nine minutes at the start of Wednesday's (Jan. 14) game at South Dakota State to crack the scoring column as the hosts surged out to a 15-0 lead and never looked back on way to a 68-53 win. Freshman Reed Tellinghuisen scored a game-high 18 points on 6-of-9 shooting and both George Marshall and Cody Larson added 15 each in the win. 

Sophomore Elijah Ray scored a season-high 12 points to pace the Jaguars and senior Khufu Najee chipped in 11 in the loss. SDSU (12-7, 3-2 Summit) outscored the Jaguars 28-8 at the charity stripe as both Marshall and Larson got to the line 12 times apiece. IUPUI (6-12, 2-2) shot a collective 14 freebies, making eight. 

"It's hard to win games when you don't make shots," IUPUI Head Coach Jason Gardner said. "It's really hard to win games when you start the game without scoring for that long of a time. I thought we did a really good job of getting back into the game, but you can't fall behind like that and expect to win, especially on the road. I don't fault our effort at all because our guys fought, but you can't have those starts and expect to come back all the time.

"I thought we reached and fouled them way too much and just didn't do a good job of moving our feet (defensively)."

IUPUI was fortunate to trail by only 10 by halftime after being held scoreless for the opening nine-plus minutes. SDSU built the 15-0 lead as IUPUI missed its first 14 shots, including two free throw attempts, and turned it over four times early. IUPUI finally broke the ice when Ray took a bump and dropped in a layup at the 10:38 mark. The Jaguars got behind by as many as 18 in the opening half, but finished well to make it 30-20 at the break. 

The Jaguars opened the second half with a Najee three-point play and later trimmed the lead to three at 40-37 on Najee's 15-footer. However, SDSU scored back-to-back baskets on Tellinghuisen and Keaton Moffitt layups to go back in front by seven and led by at least two possessions the rest of the evening. 

IUPUI went more than three minutes between buckets after Leo Svete scored on a tough baseline drive as SDSU pushed a six-point lead out to double-digits with just under nine minutes remaining. 

Larson grabbed fell one rebound shy of a double-double with nine caroms as SDSU won the glass, 35-28. Veteran guard Jake Bittle finished with seven points and eight rebounds for the Jacks while SDSU's top scorer, Deondre Parks, was held to just six points on 1-of-10 shooting. 

Senior DavRon Williams had nine points, four boards and two blocked shots for the Jaguars and Marcellus Barksdale contributed seven points, four rebounds, three assists and three steals in a team-high 31 minutes. 

SDSU shot 42.5 percent overall and 6-of-14 (42.9 percent) from three-point range while IUPUI was limited to just 37.5 percent from the field and 3-of-14 (21.4 percent) from downtown. 

"I thought they did a good job of moving the ball and making it tough on us defensively," Gardner said. "Tellinghuisen is a catch-and-shoot guy with a quick release and we let him get some rhythm looks against us." 

Tellinghuisen accounted for half of the Jacks' treys, hitting 3-of-5 attempts. 

The loss dropped IUPUI to just 6-11 all-time against South Dakota State as the Jags lost for the tenth straight time to the Jackrabbits. IUPUI is now just 2-6 all-time in games played inside SDSU's Frost Arena.  

IUPUI will cap the six-day, two-game road trip at Omaha on Sunday (Jan. 18) as the Jaguars take on the Mavs inside Ralston Arena at 2:00 p.m. Eastern. That contest will be heard on WNDE 1260 AM as Will Flemming (pxp) is on the call from courtside.