INDIANAPOLIS - Having won five of its past six games, the IUPUI basketball team will cap a five-game homestand on Saturday (Dec. 15) when the Jaguars (7-3) host Western Illinois (4-6) at 1:00 p.m. inside Indiana Farmers Coliseum. The day will be the annual Holiday Hoops Celebration Day as fans will be treated to Christmas carols inside the lobby from the Fishers Community Chorus. In addition, the holiday themed day will allow children to decorate ornaments inside the lobby prior to the game. Fans who bring a new, unwrapped toy to benefit the Ruth Lilly Women's and Children's Center will receive a FREE ticket. 

Those unable to attend on Saturday can tune in on ESPN3 as Greg Rakestraw (pxp) and IUPUI Hall of Famer Bob Lovell (analyst) call the action. 

IUPUI comes in riding back-to-back wins over non-Division I foes after Wednesday's 116-79 rout of IU Northwest. Sophomore Jaylen Minnett pumped in a career-high 28 points and junior Camron Justice tallied 22 in the win. Junior Nick Rogers hit for a career-high 15 points as the Jaguars shot 67 percent from the field and 55 percent from three-point range. IUPUI burst out to a quick 18-6 lead in the opening minutes and was never truly threatened by IUN, which was playing Wednesday's game as an exhibition. 

IUPUI will now embark on a tough three-game stretch before Christmas, beginning with back-to-back former Summit League foes in Western Illinois and Purdue Fort Wayne.

QUOTABLE: "I thought we did a good job offensively of moving the ball and getting some really good looks. We were consistently looking to make the extra pass and did a good job of knocking down the open shots. The game got a little sloppy at times, but we kept our focus and composure and did what we needed to do to get the win. That's what tonight was all about was getting the win and moving forward to a tough three-game stretch before Christmas," Gardner said of the win over IU Northwest.

UP NEXT: IUPUI will hit the road to face Purdue Fort Wayne on Tuesday night (Dec. 18) at 7:00 p.m. inside Allen County Memorial Coliseum. That game can be heard on IUPUIJags.com as Morgan Adcock (pxp) is on the call.  

QUICK NOTES (click here to access the full notes for Saturday's game): 
    JAGS HANG 116 ON IU NORTHWEST
    IUPUI coasted past IU Northwest on Wednesday night (Dec. 12), 116-79 as the Jaguars shot 67.2 percent overall and 11-of-20 (55 percent) from deep. A host of Jags had career nights, including Jaylen Minnett (28 pts, 9-11 FG, 6-7 3's), Nick Rogers (15 pts, 6-8 FG, 3-5 3's) and Jakoby Kemp (8 pts, 7 min). Junior Camron Justice dropped in his obligatory 22 on 7-of-10 shooting in just 24 minutes. 
    IUPUI built an 18-6 lead in the opening stages and never really sweated from there as 12 different players scored and none played more than Justice's 24 minutes. The 116 points were the program's most since dropping 122 on Wilberforce in November 2000. 
    Here are some more takeaways from Wednesday's win: 
    -The Jaguars' 67 percent shooting was the program's highest since hitting 69.2 percent (27-of-39) against Denver on Jan. 16, 2016 when they defeated the Pioneers, 76-61.
    -Minnett's 6-of-7 effort tied for the best single game in the program's Division I era, matching a pair of 6-of-7's recorded by Darell Combs. His 28 points easily surpassed his previous career-high of 21 in this year's season opener at Xavier. He also stopped Justice's streak of eight straight games leading the Jaguars in scoring. 
    -Both Justice and Grant Weatherford handed out a career-high six assists with Weatherford doing so without a turnover. The past two games, Weatherford has 11 assists and no turnovers. 
    -Evan Hall swatted a season-high three shots to go along with eight points and six boards. 
    -Trevor Johnson made the most of his 10 minutes, tying Hall with a team-high six boards to accompany his two points and three assists. He and true freshman Daniel Alston both scored their first career points in the win. 
    -Kemp needed just seven minutes to tally his eight points. The Utah-native now has 15 points in 17 minutes this season and has yet to miss a field goal attempt (5-of-5). 
    -IUPUI scored a season-high 56 points in the paint and 66 points off the bench. 

    VERSUS NON-I's
    Dating back to the start of IUPUI's Division I era (1998-99 season), the Jaguars are now 38-0 all-time against non-Division I opponents, winning those games by an average of 27.5 points per victory. 
    Head coach Jason Gardner is 7-0 against non-Division I opponents, winning those seven games by an average of 25.4 points per game. 

    WAIT A MINNETT
    Sophomore Jaylen Minnett was the Jaguars' star of stars on Wednesday night with 28 points, four boards and three assists. The Terre Haute-native boosted his shooting percentage from 34.8 percent to 39.8 percent by knocking in 9-of-11 attempts. 
    His three-point percentage jumped from 28.3 percent to 34.3 percent as he hit 6-of-7 tries. His six treys were a new career-high and his four boards tied his career-high. 
    Minnett has scored in double-digits in three straight games, matching the longest stretch of his college career (Feb. 2-8, 2018 / Detroit Mercy, Oakland, Cleveland St.). 

    HE GO, WE GO - JUSTICE NOTES
    -In this instance, he being Camron Justice. IUPUI is 5-1 this season when Justice scores 20-or-better and Justice is averaging 22.4 points per game in the Jaguars' six victories. In the three losses, Justice is averaging 17 points per game.
    -Justice was recently the first IUPUI player to score 20-or-more in three straight games since Darell Combs did it three times from Feb. 20-27, 2016.
    -The Kentucky-native has led IUPUI in scoring in eight of 10 games after being held to just nine points in the season opener. In that game, he had nine points and was ejected midway through the first half for tripping an opponent, which was called a flagrant 1 foul.    

    JUSTICE FOR FREE
    Junior Camron Justice has done unprecedented damage at the free throw line already this season, boasting a pair of games with double-digit makes and no misses. He went 13-for-13 at Boston College, tying for the fourth most makes in a game in program history without a miss. He upped the ante against Bradley, hitting 15 without a miss, giving him the third highest total in school history without a miss (tops in the D1 era). 

    CALL ME ISMAIL
    After a slow start to his IUPUI career, senior center Ahmed Ismail is now making his presence felt off the Jaguars' bench. Ismail scored just 10 points total in his first IUPUI games, but is since averaging 11.8 points and 5.6 rebounds in the past five games while shooting 21-of-31 (67.7%) from the floor. 

    BEST START SINCE...
    The Jags' 7-3 start is the program's best 10-game start in head coach Jason Gardner's five seasons and best start since the 2009-10 season. That squad  finished 25-11 overall and earned a spot in the CBI that season. This marks the first time Gardner has had IUPUI above .500 beyond the fourth game of any of his five seasons.

    ROLLING ON DUBS
    IUPUI has points-rebounds double-doubles from three different players this season as Elyjah Goss, Evan Hall and Ahmed Ismail have all pulled the trick. For perspective, IUPUI is the only team in the Horizon League to have three different players with points-rebounds double-doubles this season and IUPUI hasn't had three different players get double-doubles in a season since 2013-14 when four different players registered at least one (Marcellus Barksdale, Donovan Gibbs, Khufu Najee & Mitch Patton).  

    BLOW OUT THE CANDLES
    Head coach Jason Gardner celebrated his 38th birthday in style, collecting his 50th career head coaching win at Boston College on November 14. The win was the Jaguars' first over an ACC opponent since 2001 and first over a Power 5 school since winning at Seton Hall in 2009. 
    Gardner is third on the program's all-time wins list at 55, but is a far cry from the top two in program history. Current Georgia State head coach Ron Hunter (275) and IUPUI Hall of Famer Bob Lovell (195) own the top two spots in program history. 

    SHARING THE WEALTH
    IUPUI has had nine different players have hit for 10-or-more points at least once this season. Nick Rogers became the most recent player to tally double-digits, joining a group that includes Elyjah Goss, Evan Hall, Jack Hansen, Ahmed Ismail, Camron Justice, D.J. McCall, Jaylen Minnett and Grant Weatherford.