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PEORIA, Ill. - The IUPUI basketball team opened the 2017-18 season with a cold spell, shooting just 28.3 percent from the field in a 68-53 road loss at Bradley on Saturday afternoon (Nov. 11). Senior
Ron Patterson led IUPUI with 16 points on 5-of-14 shooting and was joined in double-digits by
Evan Hall (11 points) and
T.J. Henderson (10). Nate Kennell paced Bradley with 19 points off the bench, including hitting 5-of-9 from three-point range.
Collectively, Bradley (1-0) made 12-of-21 (57.1 percent) from long-range with seven different Braves hitting at least one triple.
"We're a young basketball team and more than anything, we're still trying to come together as a group and settle into roles, both offensively and defensively," head coach Jason Gardner said. "I thought we played okay in some stretches, but we also had some stretches where we settled on some bad shots or lost some of their guys on defense.
"Those are things that we can correct and learn from and get better at. When we got the ball inside and got some paint touches, the offense looked a lot better. We just didn't get it in there consistent enough and AB didn't get to play much because of foul trouble. That hurt us."
After trailing by as many as 13 in the first half, IUPUI (0-1) charged hard at the start of the second half before fading late. The Jaguars issues were compounded by a short bench in the season opener as both
D.J. McCall and
Nick Rogers missed the game, limiting Gardner to just five players who entered play with meaningful college experience.
After leading early 5-4, the Jags yielded a 13-0 run spanning more than five minutes as Bradley built a double-digit lead. The Jags defense tightened but the offense never gained steam as IUPUI trailed 28-19 at the break after making just 7-of-28 first half field goal attempts.
Hall helped IUPUI get within five on two different occasions early in the second half, the first coming on the heels of a technical foul as Gardner was upset that Henderson didn't draw a whistle on a hard drive. However, an IUPUI turnover and missed defensive assignment resulted in a wide open Kennell wing three to push the lead to 39-29 with 14:41 to play.
IUPUI crept within seven when Patterson buried a corner three with 10:54 left, but Bradley extended the lead back to double-digits with just more than 10 minutes to play and never let the guests within striking distance.
With McCall and Rogers sidelined, Henderson, Patterson and
Jaylen Minnett all logged heavy minutes in the backcourt. Senior
Aaron Brennan was limited to just 15 minutes and six points before fouling out, meaning extended run foe redshirt freshman
Elyjah Goss. The Illinois-native responded with six boards and two points in his first collegiate action.
The Jaguars' bench was outscored 34-5 as Bradley had nine players log at least 12 minutes. Donte Thomas had 15 points and eight boards for the Braves and Darrell Brown added 11 points and four assists.
Overall, it was IUPUI's poorest shooting performance since 2015 when the Jags made just 25 percent from the field in a loss at Memphis. No Jag made more than half of their shot attempts, although IUPUI did cash in on 17-of-20 (85 percent) at the charity stripe.
"Part of it was quick shots and contested shots, but part of it was just missing shots," Gardner said. "We're a better shooting team than what we showed today and I think we'll show that as the season goes on. I want our guys to continue taking the shots when they're open and know that they'll go down the next time."
IUPUI dropped to 2-3 all-time against Bradley and 1-2 in the three meetings in Peoria.
IUPUI will return home to host Anderson University on Monday night (Nov. 13) at 7:30 p.m. inside Indiana Farmers Coliseum. The game will cap a home opening doubleheader as the women's squad will face Georgetown (Ky.) at 5:00 p.m. at the Coliseum. Monday's game will be broadcast on ESPN3 as Greg Rakestraw (pxp) and IUPUI Hall of Famer Bob Lovell (analyst) will describe the action.
