INDIANANPOLIS – IUPUI women's basketball will play its final non-conference game of the season as the Jaguars head to Carbondale, Ill., to face off against Southern Illinois on Friday (Dec. 21) at 3 p.m. ET.

Both teams come in to the matchup with 6-4 records but have been on different trajectories as of late. IUPUI comes in to the game having lost three of its last four games, including dropping its last two against Iowa and Ohio. Meanwhile, Southern Illinois is winners of three-straight games with its last win coming at Murray State. On paper the matchup is a fairly even one with Southern Illinois scoring 67.6 points per game and IUPUI scoring 65.2 points per game.

IUPUI is led on offense by Macee Williams who leads the Horizon League with 20.1 points per game and is second in the league with 8.6 rebounds per game. Williams took home her second Horizon League Player of the Week award for her 27-point, 16-rebound effort in the Jags loss to Ohio. For the season, Williams has scored in double-figures in every game the Jags have played, the only player in the Horizon to do so. After Williams, junior Holly Hoopingarner is second on the team with 12.8 points per game.

Southern Illinois is led on offense by Makenzie Silvey who is averaging 16.2 points per game. Behind Silvey is Nicole Martin (14.3) and Abby Brockmeyer (11.7).

QUICK NOTES
Hoops for Holly

• Holly Hoopingarner scored 20 points to lead IUPUI in the Jags loss at No. 16 Iowa. It was the second time this season that Hoopingarner has reached the 20-point mark and just the third time in her career. Hoopingarner is averaging 12.8 points per game this season after averaging 6.6 points for her first two years in the program.

Jags Fighting Through the Valley

• IUPUI has three games against teams from the Missouri Valley Conference (Northern Iowa, Indiana State, Southern Illinois). The Jags have split their first two games against Indiana State and Northern Iowa. Against current Missouri Valley teams, IUPUI is 24-44 and are 12-8 with Parkinson at the helm.

Close Encounters of a Basketball Kind

• IUPUI has played in one-point games in two games this season (W vs. UT Martin, L/OT at Wisconsin). The last time IUPUI played in a one-point game the Jaguars beat North Dakota State 64-63 on Feb. 12 2016.  The last occurrence of playing in back-to-back one-point games for IUPUI was Jan. 19 and Jan. 24 of 2013 when the Jaguars beat South Dakota State (57-56) and UMKC (47-46).
• Over the past five season, IUPUI is 3-2 in games decided by one point. The Jaguars are 11-7 in games decided by one possession, including a 3-2 record in games decided by three points or less last season.
• Under Parkinson, IUPUI has 15-13 in one possession games and 5-6 in one-point games.

Hall of Points

• Sydney Hall is the active leading scorer for IUPUI with 838 points.  With another 162 points this season, Hall could become the 25th player in school history to reach the 1,000 career point mark.
• Hall is also the active leader in three-point shots made, having hit 172 in her career. Hall is now tied for fourth all-time in school history and is 55 threes away from becoming the all-time three point shooter.

Non-Conference Struggles

• IUPUI has lost four non-conference games this season, the most non-conference losses since 2015-16 when the Jags also fell in four games before the conference season began. IUPUI's losses have come on the road against two Big Ten teams (Wisconsin, Iowa) and at home against Northern Iowa and undefeated Ohio.

Magic Number 70

• Scoring 70 points is an important sign for the Jags under head coach Austin Parkinson. In Parkinson's first eight seasons, IUPUI is 64-11 when hitting the 70-point mark. In those 11 losses, the most points scored by the Jags in regulation was 74 points. If IUPUI scores 75 points the Jags are 55-0 under Parkinson.
• The most points ever scored in a loss by the Jags under Parkinson was 83 in a 96-83 overtime loss to Miami (Ohio) in 2017.
• IUPUI has won its last ten games when scoring at least 70 points.