MEMPHIS, Tenn. - The IUPUI basketball team got off to a sluggish start and never really found a rhythm as the Jaguars were outclassed at Memphis on Tuesday night (Dec. 22), 84-48. IUPUI shot a season worst 25 percent from the floor and was just 1-of-12 from three-point range in the defeat. 

Avery Woodson paced the Tigers (8-3) with 16 points, including hitting 4-of-6 from downtown, while K.J. Lawson added 15. Junior Darell Combs contributed a team-high 15 points for the Jaguars (4-10) and classmate Matt O'Leary tallied 12, all in the second half. Junior Nick Osborne just missed his first career double-double, finishing with eight points and a career-high 12 boards in his first appearance as a reserve. 

"We needed to get out to a good start and make some shots in order to be competitive," IUPUI Head Coach Jason Gardner said. "We just came out really flat and with not enough energy. I don't know if it was us being tired or what it was. I know (Memphis) has struggled with how they've started games, so I know Josh (Pastner) wanted them to jump on us early. 

"We took some quick shots and that kind of played into their hands. They kept us off the offensive glass and closed out possessions. They just had a little more fight in them than we did."

Gardner was on the Memphis staff two seasons ago and was a college teammate of Memphis Head Coach Josh Pastner. 

IUPUI dared the typically pitiful shooting Tigers to fire from distance early and the hosts obliged, making an array of treys to build a 15-2 lead in the opening six-plus minutes. Meanwhile, aside from Combs and Osborne, the IUPUI first half offense was virtually non-existent. The duo combined to score IUPUI's first 13 points before Mason Archie made a pair of free throws with 3:35 left before halftime. By then, the Tigers had built a 15-point lead and then closed the half on a 9-2 run to lead 39-17 at the break. IUPUI's 17 first half points were the Jaguars' fewest since scoring 16 at Evansville on Dec. 6 of last season. 

The second half didn't offer much relief as the Tigers began the final 20 minutes with a 9-2 run to pull ahead by 31 before T.J. Henderson cashed in a three-point play. Henderson was one of the few bright spots on Tuesday, closing with seven points, three boards and a team-high three assists off the bench. Fellow freshman Evan Hall, making his second career start, turned in a career-high eight boards in a game that featured a combined 102 rebounds as both teams were misfiring. 

Memphis won the glass 56-46 while shooting just 38.9 percent from the floor. Dedric Lawson and Nick Marshall both grabbed a team-high nine boards for the Tigers and Shaq Goodwin posted nine points and eight boards in limited action. 

Combs finished in double-digits for the ninth straight time and led IUPUI in scoring for the seventh consecutive game, despite making just 4-of-14 field goal attempts. O'Leary was in double-figures for the fifth straight game and sixth time in IUPUI's last seven games. Senior Marcellus Barksdale finished with seven boards and in doing so, became just the 14th player in school history to surpass 500 rebounds in a career. He sits 14th on the program's all-time list with 502 boards. 

The loss dropped IUPUI to 0-2 all-time against Memphis with both losses coming inside FedEx Forum. 

IUPUI will have nearly a week to prepare for the final non-conference game of the season as the Jaguars will face crosstown foe Butler at Hinkle Fieldhouse on Monday, Dec. 28 at 7:00 p.m.. That game will be broadcast on FS2 and will be heard on IUPUIJags.com as Morgan Adcock (pxp) is on the call. IUPUI will enter that contest 0-4 all-time against the Bulldogs with all four meetings having occurred at Hinkle.