INDIANAPOLIS - Looking to snap a three-game slide, the IUPUI basketball team will return home to host Omaha (17-10, 9-4 Summit) on Wednesday night (Feb. 17) at 7:00 p.m. inside Indiana Farmers Coliseum. The Jaguars are looking up at the Mavs in the standings, sitting fourth at 11-16 overall and 7-5 in league play. Wednesday's game will be broadcast on HTSN and ESPN3 as Greg Rakestraw (pxp) and Bob Lovell (analyst) call the action from courtside. In addition, the game will be heard on 107.5 FM in Central Indiana as Morgan Adcock (pxp) describes the action with pregame coverage beginning at 6:45.

The Jaguars are licking their wounds after a rough three game stretch that saw losses come at Denver, South Dakota State and Oral Roberts. Last week, ORU rattled off an 18-0 run in the early stages of the first half to build a huge lead on way to a 77-56 victory. Matt O'Leary led three Jaguars in double-digits with 13 points and Darell Combs tallied 12. Junior Nick Osborne added 11 points and 10 rebounds off the bench for his second career double-double. Obi Emegano paced Oral Roberts with 21 points and 13 rebounds on way to his first career double-double.

"They came out with a lot more energy than we did in the beginning and we didn't match their energy. Offensively, I thought we missed a lot of shots that we normally make. We just need to get back in the gym, get some shots up and get feeling good about ourselves," IUPUI Head Coach Jason Gardner said. "I think it'll be good for us to get home, get back in our routine and get back to doing the things we were doing a couple weeks ago."

The Jaguars are 7-1 at home this season and 4-1 in Summit League home games. IUPUI will be looking to avenge an earlier 76-71 loss in Omaha and come in at just 1-6 all-time against the Mavs.

The first 100 students in attendance will receive a FREE Retro Metros throwback t-shirt, courtesy of The Shop. In addition, as part of Campus Appreciation Night, there will be a favorite professor recognition at halftime as selected faculty and staff members will be honored for their work, as chosen by student-athletes from all 18 varsity sports.

JAGUAR TIDBITS
SEVEN AND COUNTING
    IUPUI's seven Summit League wins are the most since the 2011-12 season when the Jaguars went 7-11 in league play. An eighth win would mark the program's highest league win total since 2010-11 when the Jags finished 12-6 in conference play.

FIVE HALVES
    IUPUI's offense has gone cold over the past five halves, beginning with a second half drought at Denver on Feb. 14.
    The Jaguars have been under 40 percent shooting in four of the past five halves and been outscored by an average of 10.8 points in those halves. Here's a breakdown of IUPUI's recent offensive woes:
    at Denver (2nd): 6-21 FG (.286) - 21 pts    
    at SDSU (1st): 11-26 FG (.423) - 25 pts
    at SDSU (2nd): 11-36 FG (.306) - 33 pts
    at Oral Roberts (1st): 11-29 FG (.379) - 27 pts
    at Oral Roberts (2nd): 12-33 FG (.364) - 29 pts

DOUBLE-DOUBLE
    Junior Nick Osborne was the primary bright spot at Oral Roberts last week, notching his second double-double of the season with 11 points and 10 boards in just 23 minutes of action.
    Osborne owns two of the Jaguars' three double-doubles this season with his roommate, Matt O'Leary accounting for the other.

O'LEARY HONORED
    IUPUI junior Matt O'Leary was recently voted Academic All-District 5 for his prowess on the court and in the classroom. O'Leary has a 3.81 grade point average while majoring in management in the Kelley School of Business and is now eligible for Academic All-America honors.
    He was joined on the District 5 team by Alec Peters (Valpo), Chris Fowler (Central Michigan), Max Hooper (Oakland) and Colby Wollenman (Michigan State).

CLOSE CALLS
    IUPUI had a recent four-game streak where all four games were decided by two points or less. The Jaguars dropped a 53-51 heartbreaker at Denver on Feb. 4 after squandering a 15-point second half lead.
    Prior to that, IUPUI won three straight by a combined five points, two coming on last second buzzer beaters. The Jags won at Fort Wayne (84-82) when Marcellus Barksdale scored on left-handed layup as the final horn sounded.
    The Jags then needed a defensive stop on the final play to beat Western Illinois (69-67) and picked off North Dakota State (73-72) on Jordan Pickett's trey with 1.2 seconds remaining.
    IUPUI is 4-1 this season in games decided by two points or less, having beaten Indiana State 72-70 in the season opener.

FIRST MEETING
    IUPUI had a late comeback attempt stopped short in the first meeting between the two schools in a 76-71 road loss on Jan. 3. The Jaguars were down 11 late before rallying to make it a one-possession game in the closing minutes.
    Marcellus Barksdale sparked the rally, scoring six straight at one point and giving the Jaguars a chance to tie the score with under a minute to play, but missed four contested shots, resulting in an empty trip.
      Devin Patterson led all players with 24 points on 9-of-14 shooting and Tre'Shawn Thurman finished with 21 points. Barksdale led five Jags in double-figures with 16 points and Matt O'Leary turned in 11 points.
    
TRANSFERABLE GAINS
    IUPUI's top four scorers are Division I transfers who sat out last season. The quartet of Darell Combs, Matt O'Leary, Jordan Pickett and Nick Osborne have teamed to score nearly 44 points per game - more than 60 percent of the team's output. Senior Marcellus Barksdale is the team's top returning scorer from a year ago and is scoring 8.5 points per game this year.

BUZZER BEATERS
    IUPUI now has three buzzer beater winners in the Gardner-era as sophomore Jordan Pickett is the most recent Jaguar to knock one in, draining a three with 1.2 seconds left to send the Jags to a 73-72 win over North Dakota State.
    Senior Marcellus Barksdale was the star of stars at Fort Wayne on Jan. 23 with a game-winning layup as the horn sounded.
    Last season, P.J. Boutte beat Ball State in overtime with a runner at the horn to give the Jags a 71-69 on Nov. 22, 2014.

GOOD IN JANUARY
    IUPUI has been notoriously good in January under Head Coach Jason Gardner. IUPUI went 7-2 this January and 11-6 in the year's first month since Gardner took over last season.  

MAKE SHOTS - WIN GAMES
    Simple math tells you that making more shots than your opponents will win games. Those numbers hold true for IUPUI in the two seasons Jason Gardner has been at the helm.
    IUPUI is 19-5 (10-0 this season) when shooting a higher percentage from the floor than their opposition while going just 2-32 (1-16 this season) when being outshot by opponents.

90 STRAIGHT
    Senior swingman Marcellus Barksdale has started 90 straight games for the Jaguars, dating back to the opener of the 2013-14 season. Classmate Mason Archie is second on the active roster, having made 39 career starts.
    Barksdale is the program's lone four-year senior and has quietly stacked up some impressive numbers in his IUPUI career. Barksdale, in his fifth year with the program, has accumulated 907 points, 566 boards (11th on all-time list), 267 assists (13th on all-time list) and 155 steals (t-10th on all-time list w/ George Hill).
    It's not unreasonable to think Barksdale could finish as the 23rd member of IUPUI's 1,000 Point Club.

PERFECT AT HOME IN THE NON-CONFERENCE
    IUPUI finished the home portion of the non-conference slate with a perfect mark this season, going 3-0 in those contests. It marks IUPUI's first perfect non-conference slate since the 2010-11 season when the Jaguars had just two non-conference home games (IU-Northwest & IU-East).

IN LEAGUE PLAY
    IUPUI has been extremely balanced in the opening 12 Summit League games with five players averaging at least nine points per game. Combs leads the crew at 14.3 points per game, followed by O'Leary (10.8 ppg), Pickett (10.4 ppg), Barksdale (10.4) and Osborne (9.4).

MORE LEAGUE TIDBITS
    In Summit League play, four of IUPUI's top six scorers are shooting 49 percent or better from the field...  Nick Osborne (53.6%), Marcellus Barksdale (49.5%), Matt O'Leary (52.0%) and Evan Hall (50.0%)... the Jaguars have also seemingly fixed the turnover woes, sitting at +0.5 turnovers per game in 12 league games... that stat has been aided by a high number of steals as the Jags average 7.5 thefts per game in league play.