INDIANAPOLIS - The IUPUI basketball team will face its final regular season road test on Friday night (Feb. 16) when the Jaguars trek north to take on Milwaukee (14-14, 7-8 HL) inside UWM Arena at 7:00 p.m. Central (8 Eastern). Friday's game can be seen on ESPN3 and be heard in Central Indiana on Fox Sports 97.5 FM and the iHeartRadio app as Morgan Adcock (pxp) is on the call. 

IUPUI (8-17, 5-9) comes in looking for a season sweep of the Panthers as it tries to get back on the winning side of the ledger. The Jaguars picked off UWM at the buzzer in Indianapolis on Jan. 10 as junior Evan Hall dropped in a layup as the final horn sounded in the win. Head coach Jason Gardner's team is coming off an 84-80 loss to Youngstown State last Saturday, despite a career-high 22-point effort from junior T.J. Henderson. The Jaguars trailed by as many as 15 early in the second half, but cut it down to a one-possession game late, before ultimately succumbing to the Penguins for the second time this season. Senior Ron Patterson scored 15 of his 17 points in the first half and Aaron Brennan chipped in 16 in the loss. IUPUI allowed YSU to knock down 52 percent from the floor, paced by Cameron Morse's 28-point effort. 

Following IUPUI's trip to Milwaukee, the Jaguars will close the regular season with three straight home games, beginning with a Monday tilt with Oakland University at 7:00 p.m. inside Indiana Farmers Coliseum. The Jags are 7-3 at home this season and look to close with a flurry against three of the league's top four teams in the standings. 

QUOTABLE
"We dig ourselves too big of a hole. We keep fighting and fighting, but basketball is a game of runs and today we just got into too big of a hole. It's just energy. We have to come out ready to play every time, and that's as a collective unit," Henderson said after Saturday's loss to YSU. 

SCOUTING MILWAUKEE
Milwaukee is 14-14 on the year and 7-8 in Horizon League play. The Panthers have been strong at home, going 9-6 this season. 
    PROBABLE STARTERS:
    G- #0 Bryce Barnes (5-11, Soph.) 6.7 ppg, 2.2 rpg, 1.5 apg, 36.4 FG%
    G- #1 Jeremiah Bell (6-0, Jr.) 13.7 ppg, 3.2 rpg, 2.0 apg, 44.4 FG%
    G- #3 Brock Stull (6-4, Jr.) 13.4 ppg, 5.0 rpg, 3.1 apg, 37.5 FG%
    F- #24 Bryce Nze (6-7, Soph.) 10.1 ppg, 7.8 rpg, 1.3 apg, 59.5 FG%
    F- #50 Brett Prahl (6-9, Sr.) 9.0 ppg, 4.9 rpg, 1.2 apg, 61.8 FG%
 
INSIDE THE SERIES
IUPUI and Youngstown State have played seven times in a series that dates back to 1986. Milwaukee leads the all-time series, 4-3, although IUPUI has won the most recent two meetings between the two schools. IUPUI's 70-68 win in Milwaukee on Nov. 19, 2014 was the first coaching victory of Gardner's career. 

UP NEXT
IUPUI will return home to host Oakland University on Monday night (Feb. 19) at 7:00 p.m. at Indiana Farmers Coliseum. Monday's game is sponsored by Citizens Energy and is SPEA Night at the Coliseum. In addition, FREE IUPUI superhero capes will be distributed to students in attendance. The Avon Orioles Jump Rope Team will perform at halftime to entertain the crowd. Monday's game will be aired on ESPN3 as Greg Rakestraw (pxp) and Bob Lovell (analyst) will be on the call. 

GAME NOTES (click here for PDF of the full games notes)
LAST TIME OUT
    IUPUI dropped a tight home game last Saturday afternoon to Youngstown State, 84-80. IUPUI fell behind by as many as 15 early in the second half, but battled back to make it a one-possession game in the closing minutes. However, YSU never relinquished the lead and escaped with the four-point victory. 
    T.J. Henderson led three Jags in double-digits with a career-high 22 points (7-12 FG, 2-4 3's, 6-8 FT) and Ron Patterson scored 15 of his 17 points in the first half. Senior Aaron Brennan contributed 16 points in the loss. YSU's Cameron Morse scored a game-high 28 points, marking the most by an IUPUI opponent this season. Indianapolis-native Garrett Covington tallied 14 points and Jaylen Benton (12 pts) and Tyree Robinson (11 pts) hit for double-digits off the YSU bench. 
    
BENCH NOTES
    The IUPUI bench has been especially strong, averaging 25.3 points per game, including a season-high 43 at Oakland on Feb. 4. The past four years, the IUPUI bench has outscored opponents in 81 of 120 (67.5 percent) of its games, going 39-42 in those contests. 

BENCH NOTES, PART II
    For the year, IUPUI is getting 37 percent of its points from reserves, primarily keyed by T.J. Henderson and Jaylen Minnett. The Jags bench has hit for 40-or-more points in a game six times this season, including two of the past three games. 

BENCH NOTES, PART II
    IUPUI's top scorer has been a reserve 10 times this season. Four different players have contributed to those seven occasions. 
    Patterson (1): at Ball State (14 pts)
    Kirby (1): at Purdue (16 pts)
    Minnett (3): at Wright St. (11 pts), at UDM (12 pts), at Oakland (16 pts)
    Henderson (5): at Gonzaga (18 pts), IUK (19 pts), at GB (13 pts), CSU (19 pts), YSU (22 pts)

SINCE OAKLAND
    Since the second half of the Oakland game (Feb. 4), junior T.J. Henderson has been on a tear. He scored 14 points in the second half at Oakland and has since followed with back-to-back career-high efforts of 19 against Cleveland State (Feb. 8) and 22 against Youngstown State (Feb. 10). The past three games, Henderson is averaging 18.3 points and shooting 57 percent (16-of-28) from the field and 87 percent (20-of-23) from the foul line. 

NO. 1 FOR 6TH
    Henderson is making a compelling case for Horizon League Sixth Man of the Year honors, leading the league in scoring (10.3 ppg) among those who have yet to start a game in league play. Wright State's Jaylon Hall (10.0 ppg) is just behind Henderson at this juncture.

THEFT ALERT
    Junior D.J. McCall is currently second in the Horizon League (87th nationally) with 1.71 steals per game. After not collecting a steal in the season's opening three games, McCall has at least one steal in 19 of 22 games. 
    The junior guard has 41 steals this season, matching his career total entering this season in 63 games. 

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 23 games and Evan Hall is next with 22 starts. Nine of the Jaguars' 11 players have at least one start this season with freshman Evan Borgman getting the nod at Oakland.  
    The group of Brennan, Hall, Ron Patterson, D.J. McCall and Nick Rogers started 15 straight games (5-10) before Gardner inserted Borgman for Patterson at Oakland on Feb. 4. 

WIN/LOSS SPLITS
    In IUPUI's eight wins, the Jags have shot 47.4 percent from the field and held foes to 40.6 percent overall and 29.6 percent from deep. In addition, the Jags have outrebounded opponents by 5.4 boards per game in the eight wins. 
    In the Jaguars' 17 losses, IUPUI has shot just 40.7 percent overall and allowed opponents to shoot a robust 52.1 percent from the field and 40 percent from beyond the arc. In addition, IUPUI has been outrebounded by 2.8 boards per game in the 17 losses. 

IN LEAGUE PLAY...
    IUPUI has defended the three well in Horizon League play, yielding 32.8 percent from deep in 14 games. On the flip side, IUPUI is shooting 37.2 percent from deep in league play, led by Brennan (42.5) and Minnett (42.6). Minnett tops the team with 29 3's made in league play and followed closely by Patterson (28). 
    IUPUI has made as many or more threes than their opponents in 11 of 14 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 41-8 (.837) in games in which the Jaguars have shot a better percentage than opponents and just 4-67 (.056) 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 (69th nationally - 11.9 rpg) and forcing turnovers (52nd nationally - 15.2 to/g). 
    Because of those numbers, IUPUI has attempted 112 more shots than their foes for the year, good for 4.5 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.