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INDIANAPOLIS – As it was bitterly cold outside the arena, the frigid conditions seemed to plague the IUPUI women's basketball team (11-4, 1-1) inside Thursday night (Jan. 5), as the Jags suffered their worst loss of the season at the hands of Omaha (8-7, 1-1), 44-64.  The loss snaps a three-game winning streak and pushes it to three losses in a row against the Mavericks.

"Give credit to Omaha for their urgency and defensive rotations tonight," Head Coach Austin Parkinson said following the loss.  "We knew (Mikaela) Shaw was the key going into the game and we did nothing to slow her down."
 
On the night, the Jags shot 17-for-57 (.298) from the field, and 7-for-26 (.269) from three-point range.  On the other side, the Mavs were a stellar 27-for-54 (.500) from the floor.  The Jags were outrebounded 31-37, but limited themselves to 10 turnovers for the contest.  They forced 12 defensively.  Holly Hoopingarner led her team with 11 points off the bench on a 4-for-7 shooting performance, while Mikale Rogers finished with eight points and seven rebounds.  Danielle Lawrence had seven points, four rebounds and a pair of steals, while Sydney Hall had seven points.  Hall finished just 1-for-7 from three-point range, after dropping in seven against Western Illinois.
 
The night began in less than stellar fashion for the Jags, as IUPUI went just 2-for-9, falling to a huge deficit.  The Jags saw scoring droughts of two and four minutes, as only Lawrence and Allex Brown were able to hit from the field.  Down 4-16 with under a minute to play, Shaw of Omaha knocked down her third three-pointer to pit the Jags to a 15 point deficit to end the quarter, their worst showing of the season.

Caitlyn Tolen hit a three-pointer during the early moments of the second quarter, the first for IUPUI, to respond to a Mavericks triple.  Lawrence followed soon after with a second three-pointer, as the Jags trailed 10-22 with 7:57 to play.  The Mavs would string together seven-straight points, as the Jags had to burn a timeout with six minutes remaining.  Omaha would remain relentless as IUPUI couldn't catch up, pushing the deficit to 23 points.  Hall finally hit from three-point range, stopping 11 unanswered points from the Mavs to make it 13-33.  Hoopingarner would knock down a triple with just over two minutes to play, but five points the other way sent the teams to the locker room at the half with the score 16-38.  The Jags were a woeful 6-for-24 from the field through the first half, including 4-for-12 from three-point range.  IUPUI turned the ball over eight times, as Shaw single-handedly outscored the Jags with 18 points.
 
Out of the break, Rogers quickly hit her first bucket of the game just 10 seconds into the action.  Lawrence knocked down the Jags first free-throw of the game two minutes into the quarter, followed by a Hall floater in the lane to make it 21-40.  Four-straight points from the Mavs were answered by a free-throw and a Rogers' basket in the paint, as IUPUI outscored the Mavs 8-6 in the early going.  Hall poked the ball away in transition and stole it for a breakaway layup, continuing to chip away at the large lead.  The Mavs were held scoreless for roughly three minutes, as Rogers wrestled her way through a double-team to put up a layup.  Hoopingarner connected from long-range for the Jags fifth three-pointer of the game, but the Mavs tallied on a layup with just seconds remaining as the teams headed to the final quarter after a 15-15 period. 
 
Hoopingarner made it six-straight for IUPUI on a converted and-one play, followed by a step-in jumper to push her scoring total to 11 points.  Rogers pulled down an offensive board and returned it to the iron for a layup, but the Jags went quiet for over two minutes before Brown knocked down her first three-pointer on an assist from Taylor Drake.  Hoopingarner then found Daesjah Ely in the corner for a three-pointer, but it was too little, too late as IUPUI fell 44-64.  The Jags won the quarter, 13-11.
 
With the loss, the Jags will face first-place South Dakota Saturday (Jan. 7) in an afternoon bout at 2 p.m. EST.  The Coyotes are ranked fifth in the CollegeInsider Mid-Major Top-25 poll.

"We have a quick turnaround so we have to figure out a way to regroup," Coach Parkinson finished with.
 
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