INDIANAPOLIS - Riding a three-game winning streak, the IUPUI basketball team will cap the regular season on Sunday afternoon (Feb. 25) when the Jaguars welcome Northern Kentucky (21-8, 14-3 HL) to Indiana Farmers Coliseum for a 1:00 p.m. tip. IUPUI will recognize the senior trio of Aaron Brennan, Maurice Kirby and Ron Patterson before the game, beginning at approximately 12:45 p.m.. Sunday's home finale will be broadcast on ESPN3 as Greg Rakestraw (pxp) and IUPUI Hall of Famer Bob Lovell (analyst) are on the call. 

Head coach Jason Gardner's squad is closing strong as the Jaguars picked off Horizon League co-leader Wright State on Friday, 66-56, to extend the current winning streak to three. IUPUI has won four of five and will finish no worse than the No. 6 seed in the upcoming Horizon League Tournament, a far cry from the preseason No. 10 spot the Jaguars were given by the league's coaches, media and sports information personnel. The Jaguars' superior depth has factored heavily in the recent success as Gardner's team is routinely getting contributions from nine players in the rotation. 

Junior T.J. Henderson led the Jaguars with 12 points on Friday, including a perfect 10-of-10 effort at the charity stripe. Sophomore Nick Rogers matched his career-high with 11 points, which included three first half threes, and D.J. McCall also added 11. Redshirt freshman Elyjah Goss also contributed 21 key minutes, finishing with five points, nine boards and three assists as Brennan and Kirby both sat with foul trouble. All nine of Goss' rebounds came off the defensive glass. 

IUPUI has cranked up the defense of late, limiting back-to-back foes to under 40 percent shooting. Wright State made just 33 percent overall and 5-of-19 three-point attempts. During the current three-game winning streak, the Jags' foes are shooting just 64-of-185 (34.6 percent) from the floor and 19-of-72 (26.4 percent) from deep. 

NKU comes in having already clinched a share of the regular season title and will be seeking the outright title and the No. 1 seed in the upcoming Horizon League Tournament. 

FREEBIES / ENTERTAINMENT / GAME SPONSORS / PROMOS
There will be an All-Sports Reunion at Sunday's game as past letterwinners from all of the Jaguars' sports will participate in a pregame reception and special acknowledgements throughout the day. In addition, the 2017 IUPUI women's soccer team will receive their Horizon League Championship rings at halftime of Sunday's game and IUPUI will recognize the senior trio of Brennan, Kirby and Patterson before the game. 

QUOTABLE
"I know coming in I have to bring the energy and there can't be any drop-off. Whether it's rebounding or talking on defense, I just keep the energy going. I think we're one of the most lethal teams in the conference when it comes to depth. We can go eight or nine guys deep," Goss said following Friday's win over Wright State. 

SCOUTING NORTHERN KENTUCKY
NKU has proven to be the Horizon League's most complete team, coming on the heels of an NCAA Tournament berth a season ago. The Norse are 21-8 overall and 14-3 in league play, going 7-1 in Horizon League road games. NKU's lone league road loss came at Wright State just more than  a week ago. 
  PROBABLE STARTERS:
    G- #5 Jalen Tate (6-5, R-Fr.) 5.7 ppg, 2.3 rpg, 2.0 apg, 45.3 FG%
    G- #30 Lavone Holland II (6-1, Sr.) 13.6 ppg, 4.3 rpg, 4.5 apg, 41.8 FG%
    F- #1 Jordan Garnett (6-5, Sr.) 6.8 ppg, 3.1 rpg, 2.1 apg, 47.9 FG%
    F- #23 Carson Williams (6-6, Soph.) 12.5 ppg, 5.4 rpg, 1.2 apg, 61.1 FG%
    F- #34 Drew McDonald (6-7, Jr.) 16.8 ppg, 9.3 rpg, 2.2 apg, 46.6 FG%
 
INSIDE THE SERIES
NKU leads the all-time series 5-1 and the two teams are 1-1 in the two meetings in Indianapolis. The two teams played five times from 1981-84 and met for the first time as league foes on Dec. 28, resulting in a NKU 77-59 victory.  

UP NEXT
IUPUI will head north for the upcoming Horizon League Tournament at Little Caesar's Arena in Detroit, beginning next week. The Jags' opening round game won't be until Sunday, Mar. 4. 

GAME NOTES (click here for PDF of the full games notes)
LAST TIME OUT
IUPUI extended its winning streak to three straight with Friday's 66-56 win over Wright State. Junior T.J. Henderson scored 10 of his team-high 12 points at the foul line and D.J. McCall and Nick Rogers added 11 points each. IUPUI held Wright State to just 33 percent from the floor and 26 percent from beyond the arc.
The Jags forced 17 WSU turnovers and outscored the Raiders 18-10 in points of turnovers.
The IUPUI bench tallied 28 of the team's 66 points, keyed by Henderson (12 pts), Jaylen Minnett (7 pts, 2-2 3's) and Elyjah Goss (5 pts, 9 reb, 3 ast).  

SEED WATCH
With one game remaining, IUPUI can finish as high as the No. 4 seed in the upcoming Horizon League Tournament and as low as the No. 6 seed. By finishing among the top six, the Jaguars will avoid having to play on Friday, and will now open the tourney on Sunday, Mar. 4. 

DE-DE-DE-DEFENSE
It's amazing what a little defense will do. The Jaguars' defense has been the catalyst to the recent three-game winning streak, holding the last three foes to just 64-of-185 (34.6 percent) from the floor and 19-of-72 (26.4 percent) from deep. The 56 points allowed to Wright State on Friday were the fewest among IUPUI's Division I foes this season. 

ONE HALL OF A NIGHT LEADS TO HL POTW
Junior Evan Hall had one of the best games of his career at Milwaukee last Friday, finishing with 20 points (10-of-15 FG), 10 rebounds and a career-high four blocked shots in the victory. It was Hall's fourth career double-double and he closed one point shy of his career-high in the scoring column. It was his eighth career game with at least 10 rebounds and the first time this season he's led the Jaguars in scoring.
Hall was later named Horizon League Player of the Week, becoming the first IUPUI player to ever earn the award.  

HALL GOES BACK-TO-BACK
Junior Evan Hall recently posted back-to-back double-doubles for the first time in his career and became the first IUPUI player to post back-to-back double-doubles since Marcellus Barksdale had three-in-a-row from Dec. 18-23, 2013 (Nicholls State, at Indiana State, at SEMO).

BENCH NOTES
The IUPUI bench has been especially strong, averaging 25.1 points per game, including a season-high 43 at Oakland on Feb. 4. The past four years, the IUPUI bench has outscored opponents in 84 of 123 (68.3 percent) of its games, going 42-42 in those contests. Coming into today, the IUPUI bench has outscored the opponents' in seven straight games. 

BENCH NOTES, PART II
For the year, IUPUI is getting 36.4 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. 

BENCH NOTES, PART II
IUPUI's top scorer has been a reserve 11 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 (6): at Gonz (18 pts), IUK (19 pts), at GB (13 pts), CSU (19 pts), YSU (22 pts), WSU (12 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 followed with back-to-back career-high efforts of 19 against Cleveland State (Feb. 8) and 22 against Youngstown State (Feb. 10). The past six games, Henderson is averaging 14.8 points and shooting 51 percent (26-of-51) from the field and 88.2 percent (30-of-34) from the foul line. 

FREE MONEY?
IUPUI is shooting just 65.5 percent from the foul line this season, which would threaten the program's lowest mark in the Division I-era. The current lowest mark is 65.4 percent from 2008-09. The lowest single-season on record was a 62.7 percent mark in 1976-77.  

NO. 1 FOR 6TH
Henderson is making a compelling case for Horizon League Sixth Man of the Year honors, leading the league in scoring (10.4 ppg) among those who have yet to start a game in league play. Wright State's Jaylon Hall (9.2 ppg) is a full point behind him at this juncture.

THEFT ALERT
Junior D.J. McCall is currently second in the Horizon League with 1.59 steals per game. The junior guard has 43 steals this season, surpassing his career total of 41 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 season, 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 28 games and Evan Hall is next with 27 starts. Nine of the Jaguars' 11 players have 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 11 wins, the Jags have shot 46.7 percent from the field and held foes to 39.5 percent overall and 28.6 percent from deep. In addition, the Jags have outrebounded opponents by 3.5 boards per game in the 11 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 a league-low 31.4 percent from deep in 17 games. On the flip side, IUPUI is shooting 38 percent from deep in league play, led by Brennan (45.5) and Minnett (43.1). Patterson tops the team with 33 made 3's in league play while Minnett has 31.  
IUPUI has made as many or more threes than their opponents in 13 of 17 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 44-8 (.846) 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 (60th nationally - 12 rpg) and forcing turnovers (60th nationally - 14.8 to/g).
Because of those numbers, IUPUI has attempted 108 more shots than their foes for the year, good for 3.9 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.