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HIGHLAND HEIGHTS, Ky. - The IUPUI basketball team dropped a third straight contest on Friday night (Dec. 28) as the Jaguars opened Horizon League play with a 92-77 loss at Northern Kentucky. League Preseason Player of the Year Drew McDonald was as good as advertised, leading five Norse in double-digits with 24 points and 12 boards. 

The 92 points allowed were the most by an IUPUI foe this season. 

NKU (11-3, 1-0 HL) shot a steamy 54 percent from the floor and made 9-of-21 three-point attempts (42.9 percent), while also outscoring the Jags at the free throw line, 25-12. NKU ran roughshod over the Jags, outrebounding the guests 36-31, leaving the guests with more questions than answers to start league play. 

Sophomore Jaylen Minnett led five Jaguars in double-figures with 14 points and junior Camron Justice, who came in averaging 21, was held well below his average with 12 points and four assists. Nick Rogers and Ahmed Ismail pumped in 11 each off the bench and Grant Weatherford added 10 points and three assists. 

Collectively, IUPUI shot 45 percent from the field and just 24 percent from deep. 

"I'm disappointed in that we came out slow and we looked kind of lost at the start of the game. I don't know if we were shellshocked or what it was, but we dug ourselves a big hole and never really got out," head coach Jason Gardner said. "I thought we played well in stretches, but in order to be in the top half of this league, we have to be able to lock in at both ends of the floor for 40 straight minutes. We definitely didn't do that tonight. We played hard, but we didn't always play smart tonight."

Gardner gave his team a full three days off for the Christmas holiday following last Friday's road loss at Morehead State. The hope was that his troops would return recharged, refocused and rejuvenated for the start of Horizon League play. That wasn't the case at the start. 

After Evan Hall scored on the game's opening possession, NKU responded with a 12-0 run, fueled by seven points from McDonald. After a spirited IUPUI huddle at the game's first media timeout, the Jags returned fire with a 14-4 rally to knot the game at 16 all. Freshman Jack Hansen capped the run with an old fashioned three-point play as the Jags' bench did the bulk of the damage. In fact, IUPUI reserves scored 10 of the 14 points, including a pair of buckets in close from Ismail. 

However, NKU tightened the screws defensively and built a 21-point lead by halftime, in part due to a major free throw disparity. NKU went to the line 15 times in a physically played first half while IUPUI earned nine attempts, making just four. The fouls also decimated the Jaguars' personnel options as five different IUPUI players collected at least two first half personals. 

In seemingly poetic fashion, the first half ended with Weatherford missing a free throw that would've completed a three-point play and NKU sprinted the other way, leading to a Zaynah Robinson contested hoist from 35 feet out that found nothing but net at the horn. 

After trailing by as many as 22 in the second half, the Jags' largest deficit of the season, IUPUI (8-6, 0-1 HL) crept within 14 near the midpoint of the second half. Minnett splashed a three off a find from Elyjah Goss to make it 69-55 with 10:34 remaining. NKU responded by scoring eight of the game's next 10 points to squash any IUPUI comeback hopes. 

Tyler Sharpe, who left the game late in the first half after sustaining a gash on his head contesting a Hansen three-point attempt, returned and finished with 16 points and Dantez Walton added 12. Both Jalen Tate and Adrian Nelson tallied 10 apiece for the victors. 

IUPUI dipped to 0-3 against NKU since joining the Horizon League last season. 

IUPUI will continue the two-game Horizon League road trip on Sunday (Jan. 30) when the Jaguars face Wright State at 3:00 p.m. inside WSU's Nutter Center. That game will be broadcast on ESPN3 and can be heard on IUPUIJags.com as Morgan Adcock (pxp) is on the call.