DETROIT - The IUPUI basketball team hopes to break a three-game skid as they continue a grueling five-game stretch away from home on Friday night (Feb. 2). The Jaguars will face Detroit Mercy (6-17, 2-8 HL) inside Calihan Hall at 7:00 p.m. on Friday night in a game that will be broadcast on ESPN3, Fox Sports 97.5 FM and the iHeartRadio app as Morgan Adcock (pxp) is on the call. 

Head coach Jason Gardner's team is looking to sweep the season series with the Titans after defeating UDM in Indianapolis on Jan. 16, 81-66. Senior Aaron Brennan led the way with 15 points and seven boards and Ron Patterson had 14 points in the victory. D.J. McCall and T.J. Henderson also finished in double-digits with each hitting 5-of-7 from the field. Collectively, IUPUI shot nearly 52 percent as a team while holding Detroit to just over 40 percent from the floor. IUPUI led that game wire-to-wire and by as many as 23 points in the early stages of the second half. The visiting Titans cut the lead all the way back to five with just more than four minutes to play, but the Jaguars regained control and closed the game with a 14-4 run. 

Since then, IUPUI has fallen on hard times, dropping three straight games on the road to Cleveland State, Youngstown State and UIC.

IUPUI led at the half at UIC last Saturday, but yielded a 12-0 second half run as the Flames swept the season series with the Jaguars. Marcus Ottey led UIC with 18 points and Dikembe Dixson chipped in 15 points. Patterson closed with a career-high six treys and fell one point shy of matching his career-high, tallying 18 points. Sophomore Nick Rogers tied his career-high with 11 points and five assists while hitting 8-of-10 free throw attempts. Junior Evan Hall also matched his career-high with 11 boards to accompany eight points. 

QUOTABLE
"Once they got the momentum, they did a good job of sustaining it and we just missed some shots during that stretch. With their length and athleticism, they're a good team defensively and do a good job of protecting the rim. Even when we did get past them off the dribble, they were good about recovering and either blocking or challenging our shots. Obviously, winning on the road is tough and it's extra tough in league play. I liked our guys' fight tonight, but I didn't think we always executed the best we could. Those mistakes and empty possessions are what kill you on the road," Gardner said following Saturday's loss at UIC. 

SCOUTING DETROIT
Detroit is 6-17 overall and 2-8 in Horizon League play. The Titans are 4-7 at home this season with league wins over Cleveland State and Youngstown State. The Titans come in having dropped four straight, which began with the 81-66 loss on Jan. 16 to the Jaguars. 
    PROBABLE STARTERS:
    G- Jermaine Jackson, Jr. (5-10, Fr.) 11.6 ppg, 3.1 rpg, 2.9 apg, 35.1 FG%
    G- DeShawndre Black (6-2, Sr.) 3.4 ppg, 1.6 rpg, 1.1 apg, 36.4 FG%
    F- Roschon Prince (6-6, Gr.) 7.0 ppg, 4.5 rpg, 1.0 apg, 55.8 FG%
    F- Cole Long (6-8, Soph.) 2.8 ppg, 1.7 rpg, 0.8 apg, 35.6 FG%
    F- Kameron Chatmon (6-9, Jr.) 17.6 ppg, 8.8 rpg, 2.2 apg, 48.1 FG%
 
INSIDE THE SERIES
IUPUI is 1-0 all-time against Detroit Mercy with the meeting earlier this season marking the first-ever meeting between the two schools.   

UP NEXT
IUPUI will cap the two-game trip at Oakland University on Sunday (Feb. 4) for a noon tipoff inside the O'rena. 

GAME NOTES (click here for PDF of the full games notes)

LAST TIME OUT
Despite leading by five points at the break, IUPUI allowed UIC to reel off a decisive 12-0 run late in the second half and fell to the Flamers in Chicago, 71-62. Senior Ron Patterson led IUPUI with 18 points (6-10 3's) and Nick Rogers matched his career-high with 11 points in the loss. Marcus Ottey paced UIC with 18 points and Dikembe Dixson contributed 14 points. 
UIC shot 45.5 percent from the floor and outrebounded IUPUI 41-35 to sweep the season series from the Jaguars. 

CLOSE CALLS
Five of IUPUI's last eight games have been decided by six points or less. The Jags are 3-2 in those five decisions. Only three of IUPUI's 10 Horizon League games have been decided by double-digits - an 18-point loss at NKU, a 15-point win over Detroit and a 23-point defeat at Youngstown State. 

THEFT ALERT
Junior D.J. McCall currently leads the Horizon League (53rd nationally) with 1.95 steals per game. After not collecting a steal in the season's opening two games, McCall has 39 steals in 18 games (2.17 spg).
By comparison, McCall had just 22 steals all of last season and 41 in his 63-game career entering this season. 

ROSTER CHANGES
The IUPUI program had a few roster changes at the turn of the semester as one player departed the program and two others joined the Jaguars. Little used sophomore Noah Thomas left the program after having appeared in just two games in the first semester. Thomas, a 6-foot-9 center, totaled four points and four rebounds in eight total minutes.
On the flip side, the Jaguars brought in a pair of transfers as Mike Sagay (Boston College) and Trevor Johnson (Mesa [Ariz.] C.C.) joined the program. Sagay, a 6-foot-7 forward, comes to IUPUI with two-and-a-half years of eligibility, after having played 15 games at Boston College last season. A 3-star recruit, Sagay was ranked among Connecticut's top players as a senior at St. Thomas More High School. 
Johnson, a 6-foot-2 guard, comes to IUPUI with two years of eligibility remaining. Johnson was an All-State performer while at Flagstaff [Ariz.] High School before attending Mesa Community College. 
Both are able to begin practice with the team immediately.   

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 21 games and Ron Patterson and Evan Hall have each started 20 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 14 games (5-9). 

BENCH NOTES
As a result of the shuffling lineups, the IUPUI bench has been especially strong, averaging 23.3 points per game, including a season-high 42 on two different occasions. The past four years, the IUPUI bench has outscored opponents in 77 of 116 (66.4 percent) of its games, going 38-39 in those contests. 

BENCH NOTES, PART II
IUPUI's top scorer has been a reserve six times 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)

WIN/LOSS SPLITS
In IUPUI's seven wins, the Jags have shot 46.1 percent from the field and held foes to 39.6 percent overall and 28.4 percent from deep. In addition, the Jags have outrebounded opponents by 5.1 boards per game in the seven wins. 
In the Jaguars' 14 losses, IUPUI has shot just 40.2 percent overall and allowed opponents to shoot a robust 52.6 percent from the field and 41 percent from beyond the arc. In addition, IUPUI has been outrebounded by 5.1 boards per game in the 14 losses. 

IN LEAGUE PLAY...
IUPUI has defended the three well in Horizon League play, yielding just 31.5 percent from deep in 10 games. On the flip side, IUPUI is shooting 37.1 percent from deep in league play, led by Brennan's 42.4 percent and Minnett's 40 percent. 
IUPUI has made as many or more threes than their opponents in nine of 10 league games thus far. 

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 40-8 (.833) in games in which the Jaguars have shot a better percentage than opponents and just 4-64 (.059) when being outshot. 
The Jan. 10 Milwaukee win is the only time this season IUPUI has been outshot and won the game. 

GETTING LOOKS
Two areas where IUPUI has excelled this season are offensive rebounding (76th nationally - 11.8 rpg) and forcing turnovers (39th nationally - 15.7 to/g). 
Because of those numbers, IUPUI has attempted 106 more shots than their foes for the year, good for 5.0 shot attempts per game. 

GRADE CHECK
Ten members of the IUPUI basketball team earned at least a 3.0 grade point average during the fall semester - Evan Borgman, Aaron Brennan, Elyjah Goss, Evan Hall, T.J. Henderson, Chad Hudson, Ahmed Ismail, Maurice Kirby, D.J. McCall and Noah Thomas. 

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)

NEW NIGHT, NEW SCORER
Six different players have been the team's top scorer this season, led by T.J. Henderson's team-high 12 double-digit scoring games. Aaron Brennan and Ron Patterson are second on the squad with 11 each.