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INDIANAPOLIS - After winning four out of their last five games, the Jaguars' regular season came to a crashing close with a loss to the regular season league champs. The Jaguars (11-18, 8-10 Horizon) fell to the Horizon League champion Northern Kentucky Norse (22-8, 15-3 Horizon), 75-56.
 
On the Jaguars' Senior Day, it was the visiting Norse that threw the first punch. The Norse opened up with a 14-5 run to open the game, forcing the Jags into four turnovers and knocking down open looks from behind the arc. The Jaguars offense wasn't able to make a dent in the Norse lead halfway through the opening frame, and trailed 20-11 with under 10 minutes to play.

"I didn't think we took the fight to them. We kind of waited on them to throw the first punch and we didn't react from there," head coach Jason Gardner said. "Defensively, we had some breakdowns early and that helped them get some early momentum. They were the hungrier team today though, so you have to give them the credit. They were playing for a league title and they looked like a title team today."
 
Following a fastbreak layup by Ron Patterson at the nine minute mark, the Jaguars went scoreless for nearly five minutes until a three by T.J. Henderson broke the drought. Patterson followed with a three of his own to cut the lead to six for the first time since early in the game. Northern Kentucky answered with a 9-0 run to close the half, including a three at the buzzer to give the Norse their biggest lead of the half and a 32-17 margin heading into the locker room.

The Jags' 17 first half points were their fewest in a half this season. 
 
"Our turnovers and mistakes were on us. We have to do better taking care of the ball," Jaylen Minnett said.
 
The Jaguars shot 5-of-24 (20.8%) from the floor in the first half, and went just 2-of-7 from behind the arc. The Jags turned the ball over 10 times in the first half, which led to a 13-5 advantage in points off turnovers for Northern Kentucky. The Norse also managed a 14-4 advantage from points in the paint in the first half.
 
"The way they defended ball screens really hurt us and affected the way we run our offense," Minnett said.
 
Northern Kentucky poured in five quick points out of the locker room to go up 20 and force a Jaguar timeout. The Jaguars' offense was finally able to find the range from distance, getting two treys each from Henderson and Minnett to trim the deficit to 43-29. The run was short lived, however, as the Norse stretched the lead up to 49-30 as the Jaguar offense went cold again.
 
"We didn't have that complete energy for the full 40 minutes. You could see the stretches where we had it and the lapses when we didn't," Minnett said.
 
Minnett's three-pointer at the 16-minute mark would be the only field goal by the Jaguars until a layup by Aaron Brennan at the 8:30 mark broke the cold spell. In that span, the Jaguars only managed four points off of free throws and the Norse lead ballooned to 57-35.
 
The margin got as big as 63-37 before the Jaguars before a 13-4 run cut the deficit back under 20 with under four minutes to play, but the lead was ultimately too large for the Jaguars to overcome. The Norse would go on to win by a final score of 75-56.
 
"The ball screens messed up our spacing and how we run our offense," Henderson said. "They made it tough for us to run our offense smoothly."

The story of the game for the Jaguars was the cold shooting from the floor. For the game, the Jaguars hit just 16-of-53 from the floor and 8-of-22 from three-point range. Henderson and Patterson each poured in 14 points for the Jaguars, but were the only ones in double figures. D.J. McCall also added nine points in the effort.
 
"We were just being careless with the ball. We tried to force too much or weren't strong enough with the ball," Henderson said. "They just wanted it more than us."
 
Northern Kentucky was led in scoring by Lavone Holland II with a game-high 17 points. Drew McDonald and Dantez Walton each hit double figures with 15 and 11 points, respectively. The Norse shot 26-of-51 from the floor, and had a 26-11 advantage in points off turnovers.

IUPUI will enter the Horizon League Tournament as the No. 5 seed and will take on No. 4 Oakland on Sunday, Mar. 4 at 7:30 p.m. inside Little Caesar's Arena. IUPUI and Oakland split the regular season series with each team winning on their home floor. The game will be broadcast on ESPN3 and can be heard in Central Indiana on Fox Sports 97.5 and iHeartRadio as Morgan Adcock (pxp) describes the action.