INDIANAPOLIS - On the heels of an impressive road win over a previously undefeated Green Bay squad, the IUPUI basketball team will return home to open a four-game homestand on Thursday night (Jan. 4) at 7:00 p.m. against UIC (5-10, 0-2 HL). Tomorrow's game will be sponsored by IMCU and the K9 Crew is scheduled to perform at halftime of that game. For tickets, contact Lauren Gronke at lgronke@iupui.edu or click here on the Ticketmaster link. 

The game will be broadcast on ESPN3 as Greg Rakestraw (pxp) and Hall of Famer Bob Lovell (analyst) are on the call. 

On the floor, IUPUI (4-10, 1-2 HL) fended off Green Bay, 67-63, after building an 11-point second half lead and holding on late. Junior T.J. Henderson led four Jaguars in double-digits with 13 points and both Aaron Brennan and Nick Rogers tallied 11 each. Junior Evan Hall collected his third career double-double with 10 points and 10 boards. 

After a slow start, Henderson and Jaylen Minnett helped shoot the Jaguars back into the game as IUPUI made 6-of-12 first half treys. Minnett connected three times, including a corner connection in the closing seconds to tie the score at 33 all at the break. The Jaguars played better defensively in the second half and built an 11-point lead with under seven minutes to play before holding off the Phoenix late. Green Bay cut the lead to two before Henderson got loose for a homerun play and a game sealing layup with six seconds left. Brennan helped seal the game at the foul line, making 3-of-4 attempts down the stretch.

IUPUI outrebounded Green Bay 43-31 overall and 16-5 off the offensive glass. Hall and D.J. McCall combined to grab 12 offensive boards, helping supply the Jaguars' 36-26 advantage on points in the paint. 

SCOUTING UIC
UIC comes in at 5-10 overall and 0-2 to start Horizon League play. The Flames are 0-7 away from home and 5-3 on their home court this season. The list of home wins includes victories over NC Central, Delaware State and Dartmouth. Collectively, UIC shoots 42.4 percent from the floor and limits opponents to just 40.6 percent. Senior shot blocker Tai Odiase is UIC's marquee name, swatting nearly three shots per game this season.   
    PROBABLE STARTERS:
    G- Marcus Ottey (6-2, Soph.) 12.5 ppg, 3.9 rpg, 1.4 apg, 51.4 FG%
    G- Godwin Boahen (5-11, Soph.) 7.2 ppg, 3.6 rpg, 2.4 apg, 38.2 FG%
    F- Dikembe Dixson (6-3, Soph.) 13.3 ppg, 4.4 rpg, 1.0 apg, 36.4 FG%
    F- Jordan Blount (6-8, Soph.) 4.7 ppg, 5.5 rpg, 2.7 apg, 40.0 FG%
    C- Tai Odiase (6-9, Sr.) 8.3 ppg, 5.9 rpg, 0.2 apg, 51.1 FG%
 
INSIDE THE SERIES
IUPUI is 0-3 all-time against UIC with the most recent meeting occurring in 1999. IUPUI is 0-1 in the meetings in Indianapolis, having lost to UIC 78-67 on Feb. 12, 1980.  

UP NEXT
IUPUI will host Milwaukee on Wednesday (Jan. 10) inside Indiana Farmers Coliseum at 7:00 p.m.. That game will be sponsored by RJE and the Indy Air Bears are scheduled to perform at halftime. In addition, foam fingers will be provided to fans in attendance, provided by Lux on Capitol. For tickets, contact Lauren Gronke at lgronke@iupui.edu or click here on the Ticketmaster link. 

GAME NOTES (click here for PDF of the full games notes)
LAST TIME OUT
IUPUI earned a hard fought road win at Green Bay, 67-63 on Tuesday night (Jan. 2). After building an 11-point lead with under seven minutes to play, the Jaguars had to hang on for dear life down the stretch, including Aaron Brennan hitting 3-of-4 late free throw attempts and T.J. Henderson capping a 13-point night with a breakaway layup with six seconds left to make it a two-possession game.
The Jaguars defended well throughout, limiting Green Bay to just 39 percent overall and under 6 percent from three-point range. Henderson led four Jags in double-digits while Brennan (11), Nick Rogers (11) and Evan Hall (10) joined him. Hall capped his third collegiate double-double with 10 caroms (7 offensive).
IUPUI outrebounded Green Bay 43-31 overall and 16-5 off the offensive glass.    

STARTER NOTES
In the early portion of the non-league slate, head coach Jason Gardner continued to tweak the Jaguars' starting five, using six different quintets. For the year, senior Aaron Brennan is the lone Jag to have started all 14 games and Ron Patterson and Evan Hall have each started 13 times. Eight different players have at least one start this season.
That said, the group of Brennan, Patterson, Hall, D.J. McCall and Nick Rogers have started IUPUI's last seven games. 

BENCH NOTES
As a result of the shuffling lineups, the IUPUI bench has been especially strong, averaging more than 25 points per game, including a season-high 42 on two different occasions. 
Since coming off the bench the last nine games, junior T.J. Henderson is averaging 11.4 points per game.

BENCH NOTES, PART II
IUPUI's top scorer has been a reserve in six of 14 games this season. Four different players have contributed to those six occasions.
Patterson (1): at Ball State (14 pts)
Kirby (1): at Purdue (16 pts)
Minnett (1): at Wright State (11 pts)
Henderson (3): at Gonzaga (18 pts), IUK (19 pts), at GB (13 pts)

CHECK THE PERCENTAGES
In IUPUI's four wins, the Jags have shot 47.2 percent from the field and held foes to 37.6 percent overall and 22.6 percent from deep.
In the Jaguars' 10 losses, IUPUI has shot just 40.0 percent overall and allowed opponents to shoot a staggering 54.3 percent from the field and 44 percent from beyond the arc. 

MAKE SHOTS, WIN GAMES
The most telling number of outcomes of games under head coach Jason Gardner has simply been field goal percentages.
IUPUI is 38-8 (.826) in games in which the Jaguars have shot a better percentage than opponents and just 3-60 (.048) when being outshot. 

UNCANNY BALANCE
Albeit in a small sample size, the Jaguars have been unbelievably balanced to start Horizon League play as the team's top seven scorers are separated by just five points total. Each of the seven players have scored in double-digits exactly one time in the first three Horizon League games, led by Henderson's 13 points at Green Bay.
In addition, the top six scorers are separated by just seven total shot attempts as well: 
Player FGA Points PPG
Henderson 26 26 8.7
Brennan 23 25 8.3
Patterson 22 23 7.7
Minnett 22 23 7.7
Rogers 25 22 7.3
Hall 19 22 7.3
McCall 13 21 7.0

LEAGUE OPENERS
Head coach Jason Gardner is now 3-1 in league openers, having won all three of his Summit League openers before losing his Horizon League opener at NKU on Thursday.
1/4/15 - at Fort Wayne (63-58)
1/1/16 - at South Dakota (77-66)
12/31/16 - Western Illinois (89-71)
12/28/17 - at Northern Kentucky (59-77)

AVOIDING 0-3
With the win at Green Bay, IUPUI avoided the program's first 0-3 start to league play since the 2013-14 season. That year, IUPUI opened Summit League play 0-9 in head coach Todd Howard's final season. 

THEFT ALERT
Junior D.J. McCall is currently second among Horizon League players with 1.9 steals per game, putting him among the nation's top 100 in the category. After not collecting a steal in the season's opening two games, McCall has 25 steals in 11 games (2.27 spg).
By comparison, McCall had just 22 steals all of last season. 

NEW NIGHT, NEW SCORER
It's seemingly been a new leading scorer every night for the Jaguars this season as six different players have been the team's top scorer and nobody has scored in double-digits in every game. Junior T.J. Henderson has a team-high 10 double-digit scoring games and the team's leading scorer, Ron Patterson, is next in line with seven. 

SNAPPED AT 13
Senior Ron Patterson made a three in 13 straight games to start the season before going 0-for-3 at Green Bay - his longest stretch of his college career. His longest streak last season was 10 straight games from Jan. 5-Feb. 8. 

DEFENDING THE TREY
The Jaguars have struggled to defend the three-point line this season, yielding 38 percent. Below are some instances of the Jaguars' woes, both individually and collectively:
at Bradley (57.1%) - Nate Kennell (5-of-9)
at EIU (45.0%) - Terrell Lewis (7-of-9)
at WIU (58.8%) - Kobe Webster (5-of-7)
vs. SIUE (68.8%)
IUPUI is 1-7 this season when hitting fewer threes than opponents this year and 3-3 when making the same number or more treys than foes. 

TOUGH THREE
IUPUI endured arguably the toughest three-game stretch in program history with road games at No. 21 Purdue (L, 61-86), at Washington State (L, 59-72) and at No. 12 Gonzaga (L, 71-101). The losses at Purdue and Gonzaga dropped IUPUI to 0-17 all-time against nationally ranked foes.   
In the non-conference slate, IUPUI had the nation's 50th toughest schedule (hardest in the Horizon League) according to KenPom.com. 

FIVE KEY NUMBERS
Below are five key numbers from the Jaguars' win at Green Bay.
1-17: Green Bay's three-point shooting for the game, hitting less than 6 percent of their attempts   
26-6: IUPUI's scoring advantage off the bench, keyed by Henderson (13) and Minnett (9)  
5: Offensive boards grabbed by Green Bay, leading to just seven second chance points
12: Offensive rebounds grabbed by Hall (7) and McCall (5) combined
10-10: Points and rebounds for Evan Hall in his third career double-double (first of the season)