INDIANAPOLIS - After spending the past three weeks away from home, the IUPUI basketball team will return to Indiana Farmers Coliseum on Thursday night (Feb. 8) when the Jaguars host Cleveland State (6-19, 3-9 HL) at 7:00 p.m. IUPUI (7-16, 4-8 HL) comes in looking to snap a five-game skid with all five defeats coming on the road. 

Thursday's game will be broadcast on ESPN3 as Greg Rakestraw (pxp) and Hall of Famer Bob Lovell (analyst) are on the call. 

The Jaguars had a number of close calls during the recent five-game slide, including a tough road loss at the league's preseason favorite Oakland on Sunday. The Jags trailed by as many as 17 in the first half, but battled back to make it a one-possession game down the stretch before ultimately succumbing to the Golden Grizzlies. 

Freshman Jaylen Minnett continued his hot road trip with 16 points off the bench while senior Aaron Brennan also tallied 16 before fouling out. Junior T.J. Henderson scored all 14 of his points in the second half, helping lead the comeback charge. After allowing OU to shoot better than 60 percent from the floor in the first half, IUPUI limited the Golden Grizzlies to just seven second half field goals. 

Evan Hall and Elyjah Goss helped IUPUI outrebound the Golden Grizzlies by a solid margin, but ultimately, a 40 percent shooting performance was the Jaguars' undoing.  

FREEBIES / ENTERTAINMENT / GAME SPONSORS / PROMOS
Thursday's game is sponsored by Indiana Members Credit Union and will be the departmental Crimson & White Game for the semester. In addition, it's Greek Night at the Coliseum as selected Greek organizations will be highlighted throughout the evening. In-game recognitions will include the annual Favorite Professor Night, an IUPUI Employee Recognition and a pregame recognition of the staff of Broadmoor Country Club.   

QUOTABLE
"I thought we showed a lot of fight today. The energy was better. Especially in the second half, I thought we stepped in and went toe-to-toe with them. We outrebounded them, we held them to 33 percent shooting in the second half and I thought we did a good job of chasing them off the [three-point] line. Our start did us again today. We let them jump on us, but then I thought we did a good job of getting back in the game. We just had that one long lull in the first half where we couldn't get a bucket though. I'm proud of our guys and I'm proud of the fight they showed. Now we get to finish with five of our next six games at home and hopefully we can get hot and defend our floor," Gardner said after Sunday's loss at Oakland. 

SCOUTING CLEVELAND STATE
Cleveland State is 6-19 overall and 3-9 in Horizon League play this season. The Vikings are 0-13 away from home this season and an even 6-6 on their home floor.  
    PROBABLE STARTERS:
    G- #4 Kenny Carpenter (6-5, Sr.) 12.8 ppg, 5.0 rpg, 2.3 apg, 48.3 FG%
    G- #5 Tyree Appleby (6-1, Fr.) 11.0 ppg, 2.3 rpg, 3.7 apg, 42.2 FG%
    G- #20 Bobby Word (6-4, Sr.) 10.6 ppg, 2.9 rpg, 0.5 apg, 39.4 FG%
    F- #13 Stefan Kenic (6-9, Fr.) 8.6 ppg, 3.3 rpg, 0.7 apg, 39.5 FG%
    F- #23 Jamarcus Hairston (6-8, Soph.) 4.8 ppg, 3.8 rpg, 0.7 apg, 48.5 FG%
 
INSIDE THE SERIES
IUPUI is 2-1 all-time against Cleveland State after dropping a meeting between the two schools earlier this season, 70-67 in Cleveland on Jan. 18. IUPUI is 1-0 all-time against CSU and 1-1 in the two meetings inside CSU's Holstein Center. 

UP NEXT
IUPUI will cap the two-game homestand on Saturday afternoon (Feb. 10) when the Jaguars host Youngstown State at 1:00 p.m. inside Indiana Farmers Coliseum. The Pacers Power Pack will perform at halftime of that game and the IU School of Dentistry will serve as game sponsor. For tickets, click here or contact Lauren Gronke at lgronke@iupui.edu.  

GAME NOTES (click here for PDF of the full games notes)
LAST TIME OUT
IUPUI dropped a fifth straight game on Sunday (Feb. 4) as the Jaguars fell at Oakland, 82-74. The Jaguars were down by as many as 17 in the first half, but stormed back to make a game of it in the second half. IUPUI made it a one-possession game on a couple different occasions in the second half, but never got fully over the hump, despite limiting Oakland to just seven second half field goals.
The Horizon League's top scorer Kendrick Nunn closed with 26 points on 9-of-16 shooting and Jalen Hayes chipped in 21 points, but fouled out with 9:35 to play. Jaylen Minnett and Aaron Brennan had a team-high 16 points in the loss and T.J. Henderson added 14 points, all in the second half. 

'J'AYLEN
Freshman Jaylen Minnett showcased his sweet jumper throughout the recent two-game road trip to Michigan, averaging 14.0 points in the losses at Detroit Mercy and Oakland. The rookie guard tallied a career-high 16 (6-14 FG, 4-10 3's) off the bench at Oakland on Sunday to go along with two assists. He connected on 8-of-19 (42.1 percent) treys in the two road games.
His 16 points were the most by an IUPUI true freshman since T.J. Henderson scored 16 against Omaha on Feb. 17, 2016.  

NO. 1 FOR 6TH
Junior T.J. Henderson is making a compelling case for Horizon League Sixth Man of the Year honors, ranking third in the league in scoring among those who have yet to start a game in league play. Wright State's Jaylon Hall (9.8 ppg) leads the group and Henderson is second overall. NKU's Tyler Sharpe is next at 8.4 ppg. 

THEFT ALERT
Junior D.J. McCall currently leads the Horizon League (68th nationally) with 1.82 steals per game. After not collecting a steal in the season's opening three games, McCall has at least one steal in 18 of the team's 20 games.
The junior guard has 40 steals this season. By comparison, he 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 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. 

BENCH NOTES
The IUPUI bench has been especially strong, averaging 24.2 points per game, including a season-high 43 at Oakland on Feb. 4. The past four years, the IUPUI bench has outscored opponents in 79 of 118 (66.9 percent) of its games, going 38-41 in those contests. 

BENCH NOTES, PART II
IUPUI's top scorer has been a reserve eight times this season. Four different players have contributed to those eight 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 (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' 16 losses, IUPUI has shot just 40.3 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 3.7 boards per game in the 16 losses. 

IN LEAGUE PLAY...
IUPUI has defended the three well in Horizon League play, yielding 31.6 percent from deep in 12 games. On the flip side, IUPUI is shooting 37.2 percent from deep in league play, led by Brennan (44.4), Minnett (40.7) and Patterson (38.2).
IUPUI has made as many or more threes than their opponents in 11 of 12 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 4-66 (.057) 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 (61st nationally - 12 rpg) and forcing turnovers (46th nationally - 15.4 to/g).
Because of those numbers, IUPUI has attempted 122 more shots than their foes for the year, good for 5.3 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.