INDIANAPOLIS - The IUPUI basketball team will open the second half of Horizon League play on Friday night (Feb. 1) when the Jaguars host league leader Northern Kentucky at 7:00 p.m. at Indiana Farmers Coliseum. Tickets are available via
TicketMaster or at the Coliseum box office. Friday's game will be broadcast on ESPN+ as Greg Rakestraw (pxp) and Hall of Famer Bob Lovell (analyst) are on the call.
IUPUI (13-9, 5-4 HL) comes in having won two-in-a-row and five of its past seven games while NKU's lone blemish in league play is a two-point loss at Oakland and the Norse (18-4, 8-1 HL) have since won six straight. NKU comes in ranked No. 20 in the most recent CollegeInsider.com Mid-Major Top 25. The two teams represent the top two rebounding teams in the Horizon League while NKU has been one of the league's best defensive clubs this season.
The Jags have opened the currently five-game homestand with back-to-back wins over Oakland and Detroit Mercy, heading into Friday's clash. Junior
Camron Justice led four Jaguars in double-digits with 21 points in IUPUI's recent 80-65 victory over UDM. Sophomore
Jaylen Minnett added 17 points off the bench and freshman
Jack Hansen hit for a career-high 15 points in just 18 minutes of action. Senior
Evan Hall rounded out the group with 10 points, 10 boards, seven assists and two blocked shots en route to his eighth career double-double.
QUOTABLE: "Detroit is a hard team to put away. They really shoot it [from three] and can get hot and score a lot in a hurry. I thought we did a good job of looking to make the extra pass and getting open looks. Cam and Jaylen did a good job of knocking down open looks against their zone. We knew they'd both have to make shots to get a win," Gardner said after Saturday's win over Detroit Mercy.
UP NEXT: IUPUI's five-game homestand will continue on Sunday (Feb. 3) when the Jaguars host Wright State at 1:00 p.m. inside the Coliseum.
QUICK NOTES (click here to access the full notes for Friday's game):
JAGS BREEZE PAST TITANS FOR SECOND STRAIGHT WIN
IUPUI matched its season-highs with 11 threes made and 26 assists as the Jaguars rolled past Detroit Mercy, 80-65, last Saturday. Junior
Camron Justice (21 pts) and
Jaylen Minnett (17 pts) combined to hit 10 threes while freshman
Jack Hansen came off the bench to pump in a career-high 15 points (5-9 FG, 5-5 FT). Senior
Evan Hall flirted with a triple double, posting 10 points, 10 boards and a career-high seven assists in the win. IUPUI benefited from UDM's Antoine Davis sitting out the game, due to injury.
IUPUI took the lead in the first half with a 12-0 run to seize a 23-15 advantage and later led 33-24 at the half. The Jags then opened the second half with 10 straight points to bury the Titans. The lead grew as large as 23 and IUPUI never let the Titans closer than 13 for the remainder of the day.
Willy Isiani led UDM with 20 points on six treys and Josh McFolley added 19 points and five assists. UDM shot 51 percent from the floor, but committed 22 turnovers in the loss.
Here are more notes from last Saturday's win.
-Hall's double-double was the eighth of his career and third of the season. He's riding back-to-back double-doubles for the second time in his career. Saturday's game was the 12th time he's grabbed 10 or more boards in a game in his career. Hall also blocked at least two shots in a game for the fifth straight game as he's now tied for the league lead in blocked shots (1.3 bpg).
-Hansen scored in double-digits for the first time since tallying 10 in his collegiate debut at Xavier in the season opener. Hansen had scored just seven points in IUPUI's last seven games combined before going for 15 on Saturday.
-Sophomore
Grant Weatherford had a career-high four steals on Saturday to accompany his six assists and no turnovers.
-Senior
D.J. McCall had his personal best streak of five straight games in double-digits stopped as he closed with eight points, five assists and three boards.
-Justice hit for 20-or-more for the 11th time this season, but it was his first game of 20-or-more since scoring 30 at UIC on Jan. 4.
TURNAROUNDS
As of today, IUPUI is tied for the 29th largest improvement from last season (11-19) to this season (13-9). The Jaguars' 6.0 game improvement is the largest in the Horizon League, just ahead of Detroit Mercy's 5.5 game improvement from 8-24 to 8-13.
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 492 in his career.
-The 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 250th career rebound at Milwaukee.
-Fifth-year senior
D.J. McCall played his 2,500th career minute at NKU.
STREAKS
Justice has scored in double-digits in 21 straight games.
Minnett has made a three in 25 straight games, dating back to last season.
McCall has started 49 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 55-8 (.873) in his five seasons when shooting a higher percentage than their opponent.
2.) IUPUI is now 9-1 this season when holding opponents to 70 points or less. In IUPUI wins, IUPUI holds foes to 40 percent and an average of 67.6 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 4.6 rebounds per game to rank 62nd in the country. However, the Jags have been particularly impressive on the glass in league play with a +6.7 margin in league games.
IUPUI has outrebounded its opponent by 10 or more boards eight times this season, including five times in Horizon League play.
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 6.3 treys per game while eight Horizon League teams hit 8-or-more 3's per game in league play.
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).
HE GO, WE GO - JUSTICE NOTES
In this instance, 'he' being
Camron Justice. IUPUI is 8-3 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 16 of 22 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 five of the Jaguars' last six games. During the span, McCall is averaging 14 points per game and shooting 29-of-55 (52.7 percent) from the floor and 23-of-29 (79.3 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.
