IUPUI (11-9, 3-4) vs. Oakland (9-11. 5-2)
Thursday, Jan. 24, 2019 - 11:00 a.m.
Live Video:	ESPN+
Live Stats:	Click Here
Series:	OU leads 27-17
Last Meeting:	Mar. 4, 2018
Game Notes:	Click Here

INDIANAPOLIS - The IUPUI basketball team will kick off a five-game homestand in grand style on Thursday morning (Jan. 24) when the Jaguars host Oakland University at 11:00 a.m. inside Indiana Farmers Coliseum. The game will tip at 11:00 a.m. as IUPUI Athletics will host the second annual 'Readers Become Leaders' event in a partnership with the NCAA and roughly 2,000 third-graders from throughout Central Indiana will be in attendance. Last year's event drew approximately 1,500 third-graders as the Jags topped eventual league champion Wright State at the Coliseum. 

IUPUI (11-9, 3-4 HL) comes in on the heels of a road loss at Milwaukee on Saturday, 64-57. The Jags pumped in a season-low 57 points and just 21 in the first half in the loss to Milwaukee. Junior Camron Justice scored a team-high 17 points and senior D.J. McCall added 13 in the loss. The loss was IUPUI's first to Milwaukee since joining the Horizon League prior to last season. The Jaguars swept the Panthers in last year's home-and-home series. 

Thursday's foe, Oakland (9-11, 5-2 HL), is tied for second among the league standings after a win over Detroit Mercy this past weekend. Head coach Greg Kampe's team is 5-2 in league play and is keyed by the high scoring duo of Xavier Hill-Mais (21.0 ppg) and Jaevin Cumberland (17.6 ppg). Oakland is 3-0 in Horizon League road games this season with wins at Cleveland State, Youngstown State and Detroit Mercy. 

Both IUPUI head coach Jason Gardner and Kampe will wear sneakers on Thursday as part of Suits And Sneakers Week in support of the NABC Coaches vs. Cancer initiative. 

QUOTABLE: "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. 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," head coach Jason Gardner said. 

UP NEXT: IUPUI's five-game homestand will continue on Saturday (Jan. 26) when the Jaguars host Detroit Mercy at 1:00 p.m. inside Indiana Farmers Coliseum. Saturday's game is Cram the Coliseum Day and there will be a postgame meet-and-greet for athletics alum at the nearby Liter House in Broad Ripple. 

QUICK NOTES (click here to access the full notes for Thursday's game): 
    JAGS FALL SHORT AT MILWAUKEE ON SATURDAY
    IUPUI had its worst offensive evening of the 2018-19 season at Milwaukee on Saturday (Jan. 19) as the Jaguars fell to the homestanding Panthers, 64-57, nixing the bid to sweep the two-game road trip. IUPUI scored a season-low 57 points, and just 21 in the first half, and never fully recovered after digging into a hole early in the second half. 
    Junior Camron Justice scored a team-high 17 points and D.J. McCall added 13 points and five boards in the loss. Darius Roy and DeAndre Abram combined to score 44 points on 17-of-28 shooting and 6-of-9 from deep to anchor Milwaukee. Vance Johnson added eight points and seven boards off the Milwaukee bench. 
    IUPUI shot just 24 percent in the first half and compounded the shooting problems by only getting to the free throw line 11 times in the loss - a season-low in that category. 
    Here are some more tidbits from Saturday's defeat.
    -The loss marked the first time this season IUPUI held an opponent under 70 points and lost, dropping to 8-1 overall. 
    -Senior Evan Hall tied his season-high with three blocked shots, marking his third three-block game of the season. Hall has swatted eight shots in the Jaguars' past three games and is well inside the program's top-10 all-time in that category. 
    -McCall scored in double-digits for the fourth straight game after doing so just three times in IUPUI's opening 16 games of the season. 
    -Milwaukee's 16 points in the paint were the fewest by an IUPUI foe this season.
    -IUPUI came in as the top rebounding team in the Horizon League, but was outrebounded 35-33 by the Panthers. Elyjah Goss led IUPUI with eight boards and Hall and McCall grabbed five each. 

    SIGHTS & SOUNDS
    -Today will undoubtedly be the LOUDEST crowd of the Jaguars' home season as the department hosts the 2nd annual 'Readers Become Leaders' program, in conjunction with the NCAA. Roughly 2,000 third-graders from throughout Central Indiana are expected to attend today's festivities and WISH-TV's Charlie Clifford will emcee the halftime entertainment. Last year's event drew 2,263 as the Jags hosted Wright St. on Feb. 23 and defeated the Raiders, 66-56. 
    -Head Coach Jason Gardner and his staff will be wearing sneakers, both today and Saturday (Jan. 26), as part of the annual NABC Suits And Sneakers Week (Jan. 21-27) for the Coaches vs. Cancer initiative. 
    -TODAY is IUPUI's 50th Birthday - there will be a rendition of Happy Birthday performed by the students in attendance as part of the 50th anniversary celebration. 

    MILESTONES
    -Senior Evan Hall became the 15th player in IUPUI history to grab 500 career rebounds at UIC (Jan. 4). Fellow senior D.J. McCall is bearing down on that number with 480 in his career. 
    -Thursday's game at Green Bay was Evan Hall's 100th career game played. 
    -Nick Rogers dished out the 100th assist of his IUPUI career at Wright State. 
    -Elyjah Goss grabbed his 200th rebound of his  career at NKU and his 250th on Saturday at Milwaukee.
    -Fifth-year senior D.J. McCall played his 2,500th career minute at NKU. 

    STREAKS
    Justice has scored in double-digits in 19 straight games.
    Minnett has made a three in 23 straight games, dating back to last season.
    McCall has started 47 straight games, dating back to last season.      

    INDICATORS
    As the season wears on, two trends have become indicators as to how IUPUI will fare.  
    1.) IUPUI is 11-0 this season when shooting a higher percentage than their opponent. That number has been consistent under Gardner as IUPUI is 54-8 (.871) in his five seasons when shooting a higher percentage than their opponent. 
    2.) IUPUI is now 8-1 this season when holding opponents to 70 points or less. In IUPUI wins, IUPUI holds foes to 39.5 percent and an average of 67.5 points per game. In IUPUI losses, foes are shooting better than 49 percent and scoring an average of 80 points per game. 

    GLASS EATERS
    IUPUI has been strong on the glass all year long, outrebounding foes by a league-best 4.5 rebounds per game to rank 65th in the country. However, the Jags have been particularly impressive on the glass to open league play with a league best +6.8 margin in the opening six games, while limiting opponents to just 30.9 rebounds per game. 

    DO IT INSIDE
    Bucking the national trend, IUPUI relies heavily on the interior for points this season. The Jags average nearly 35 points per game in the paint and also rank among the nation's leaders in free throws made and attempted. 
    In league play, IUPUI is hitting a league low 5.7 treys per game while the next lowest in the league is making 7.3 threes per game. 

    HEAVY HITTERS
    IUPUI opened conference play with arguably the toughest opening schedule in Horizon League history, taking on the top three picks in the league's preseason polls, all on the road. The trio of Wright State, Northern Kentucky and UIC collected 39 of the 40 possible first-place votes and easily separated from the second tier of selections. 
    The Jaguars dropped the first two of the three-game stretch, losing at Northern Kentucky and Wright State, before rebounding to win at UIC last Friday (Jan. 4).

    FREE MONEY
    IUPUI enters play ranked among the nation's leaders in both free throws made (326) and free throws attempted (456). Junior Camron Justice is 38th in free throw percentage (86.9%) and 41st in free throws made (91).  
    Justice has done unprecedented damage at the free throw line already this season, boasting a pair of games with double-digit makes and no misses. He went 13-for-13 at Boston College, tying for the fourth most makes in a game in program history without a miss. He upped the ante against Bradley, hitting 15 without a miss, giving him the third highest total in school history without a miss (tops in the D1 era). 

    HE GO, WE GO - JUSTICE NOTES
    In this instance, 'he' being Camron Justice. IUPUI is 7-3 this season when Justice scores 20-or-better. Justice was the first IUPUI player to score 20-or-more in four straight games since Jan. 14-28, 2012 when Alex Young went for 27-27-26-22 in a four-game span.
    -The Kentucky-native has led IUPUI in scoring in 14 of 20 games after being held to just nine points in the season opener. In that game, he had just nine points before he was ejected midway through the first half for tripping an opponent, which was called a flagrant 1 foul.    

    D.J. SPINNIN'
    Senior D.J. McCall is playing the best basketball of his career recently, having scored in double-digits in a career-best four straight games entering today's contest. During the four-game span, McCall is averaging 14.5 points per game and shooting 20-of-37 (54.1 percent) from the floor and 16-of-19 (84.2 percent) from the foul line. 

    TURN BACK THE CLOCK
    IUPUI got a skosh younger over the holiday break in terms of years of eligibility remaining. Grant Weatherford was awarded a clock extension from the NCAA in December, allowing him a sixth year in which to complete his four playing seasons - thus making him a sophomore eligibility-wise. IUPUI Associate AD for Compliance Laura Hue took the lead on applying for the successful waiver. 

    CALL ME ISMAIL
    After a slow start to his IUPUI career, senior center Ahmed Ismail is now making his presence felt off the Jaguars' bench. Ismail scored just 10 points total in his first five IUPUI games, but is since averaging 8.7 points and 5.4 rebounds since while shooting 47-of-79 (59.5%) from the floor. 

    CLASS ACTS
    Nine Jaguars were named to the department's Academic Advisor's List for the fall semester for earning a 3.0 GPA or better - Daniel Alston, Elyjah Goss, Jack Hansen, Jamil Jackson, Trevor Johnson, Jakoby Kemp, Brandon Kenyon, D.J. McCall and Grant Weatherford. Hansen notched a perfect 4.0 GPA during the fall semester.  

    BEST START SINCE...
    The Jags' 8-3 start was the program's best start in head coach Jason Gardner's five seasons and best start since the 2009-10 season. That squad  finished 25-11 overall and earned a spot in the CBI that season. This marks the first time Gardner has had IUPUI above .500 beyond the fourth game of any of his five seasons.

    ROLLING ON DUBS
    IUPUI has points-rebounds double-doubles from three different players this season as Elyjah Goss, Evan Hall and Ahmed Ismail have all pulled the trick. For perspective, IUPUI hasn't had three different players get double-doubles in a season since 2013-14 when four different players registered at least one (Marcellus Barksdale, Donovan Gibbs, Khufu Najee & Mitch Patton).  

    BLOW OUT THE CANDLES
    Head coach Jason Gardner celebrated his 38th birthday in style, collecting his 50th career head coaching win at Boston College on November 14. The win was the Jaguars' first over an ACC opponent since 2001 and first over a Power 5 school since winning at Seton Hall in 2009. 
    Gardner is third on the program's all-time wins list at 59, but is a far cry from the top two in program history. Current Georgia State head coach Ron Hunter (275) and IUPUI Hall of Famer Bob Lovell (195) own the top two spots in program history.