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INDIANAPOLIS - Jaylen Minnett and Camron Justice scored 19 points each and senior center Ahmed Ismail added 18 points on a perfect 8-of-8 shooting as IUPUI waltzed past Central State in its lone exhibition of the 2018-19 season on Monday night (Oct. 29), 86-52. Minnett and Justice combined to hit seven treys and IUPUI finished at 51 percent shooting for the game while delivering 24 assists on 33 buckets. Senior Evan Hall closed with a double-double with 10 points, 12 rebounds and four assists in the victory. 

Quinton Glaspie was the lone Central State player in double-digits with 17 points and five boards off the Marauders' bench. 

"Tonight, I think what you saw was a group of guys that work well together, they play unselfish and look to make the extra pass offensively," head coach Jason Gardner said of his team's performance. "I liked that we had 24 assists on 33 baskets and I liked that we went out and won the glass and didn't really commit a lot of turnovers. It's a starting point and that's what these games are for, but I'm proud of the guys for going out and taking care of business.

"That's what I expected from our guys."

IUPUI scored on the opening possession of the night on a Justice wing three and never looked back, pushing out to an 11-4 lead in the early going. The lead reached double-digits at the 7:11 mark of the first half when sophomore Elyjah Goss buried a trey of his own off a Nick Rogers feed. The reserves continued to extend the lead before halftime as Jack Hansen stuck a triple late in the half and Ismail closed with three late points to make it 43-23 at the break. 

An 8-0 run early in the second half pushed the Jaguars' lead to 30 at 62-32, capped by Minnett's steal just inside midcourt which led to him finishing a layup at the other end. The Jags landed a final 12-0 haymaker to make it 80-38 with 4:50 left, punctuated by an Ismail layup. 

Nearly every number on the box score pointed in the Jags' favor, including a decisive 46-21 advantage in bench scoring and 30-10 margin in points in the paint. 

"I think we have the potential to be a very deep team," Gardner said. "Tonight we got 46 bench points with guys like Jaylen and Ahmed coming off the bench and that was with D.J. not playing. On any given night, we're going to have some guys that can really impact the game coming off the bench and that's something as a coaching staff we'll have to manage. It's a good problem to have."

Goss closed with five boards and Hansen had four points, four rebounds and four assists in 17 minutes off the bench. Justice handed out a game-high five assists in his 26 minutes of action. 

IUPUI will open the regular season on Tuesday, Nov. 6 at Xavier at 8:30 p.m. in a game that will be broadcast on FS2. The game will also be heard on IUPUIJags.com as Morgan Adcock (pxp) is on the call.