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MILWAUKEE, Wisc. - With a raucous winter storm effecting all of the Midwest, the IUPUI basketball team was beset by frigid shooting as well as the Jaguars dropped a 64-57 road decision at Milwaukee on Saturday night (Jan. 19). IUPUI (11-9, 3-4 HL) shot just 24 percent in the first half and finished at 36 percent overall as the Jags had their modest two-game road winning streak snapped. 

Darius Roy led Milwaukee (9-11, 4-3 HL) with 25 points on 9-of-11 shooting and DeAndre Abram chipped in 19 points in the win. Milwaukee shot 41 percent for the game, but a more efficient 44 percent from three-point range to pick off the Jags. Junior Camron Justice led IUPUI with 17 points and senior D.J. McCall added 13 for his fourth straight double-digit scoring game in defeat. 

"This was one of those nights where nothing we did offensively seemed to work. Credit them defensively for their work, but in a lot of instances, I thought we missed some shots that we typically knock down," head coach Jason Gardner said. "Defensively, we were good enough to win tonight. But you can't shoot 36 percent on the road and expect to win. 

"We settled for some jumpers instead of attacking them off the bounce more and had too many empty trips when we needed buckets."

IUPUI started cold and fell into a 12-6 hole before freshman Jack Hansen tied the game at 14 all with a trey. The Jags pushed out to a three-point lead late in the half on an Evan Hall bucket, but Milwaukee closed with the final four points of the stanza to take a 22-21 lead into the break. The run extended to 11-0 when the Panthers scored the opening seven points of the second half on a Abram jumper and five straight points from Roy. 

Gardner's club chipped away and closed within one on two different occasions, the second of which came with 10:30 remaining when Ahmed Ismail dropped in a layup. Milwaukee fired back with a 10-0 run, scoring on five of its next six possessions to take a 50-39 lead. The run was aided by a flagrant foul call against Elyjah Goss, which resulted in a pair of made free throws and a Roy trey on the ensuing possession. 

Junior Nick Rogers halted the run with a three-pointer and Justice followed with an old fashioned three-point play to make it a five-point margin. 

IUPUI got within four in the closing minutes, but never closed within fewer than a two possession game. 

Sophomore Jaylen Minnett came off the bench to provide eight points and four assists while Evan Hall produced six points, five boards and three blocked shots. Goss grabbed a team-high eight boards as the Jags were outrebounded by a 35-33 margin - a rarity for the Jags in Horizon League play. 

Vance Johnson had eight points and seven rebounds off the Milwaukee bench. 

McCall, who went 4-of-6 from the floor and 4-of-5 from the free throw line, was the lone IUPUI player to make better than half of his field goal attempts. He also finished with five rebounds and a pair of steals. 

IUPUI will now return home for a five-game homestand, beginning with an 11:00 a.m. tipoff against Oakland University on Thursday (Jan. 24) as part of the NCAA "Readers Become Leaders" program. That game will be broadcast on ESPN+ as Greg Rakestraw (pxp) and Bob Lovell (analyst) describe the action.