LAS VEGAS – IUPUI women's basketball will spend the Thanksgiving weekend in Las Vegas at the Lady Rebel Roundup, hosted by UNLV. The tournament for the Jags will begin with a matchup against St. John's on Saturday (Nov. 30) at 4:30 p.m. ET.

IUPUI (2-3) will be looking to snap a three-game losing streak as it will take on the Red Storm for the first time in school history. During the three-game skid IUPUI has held a fourth quarter lead in all three games before dropping the game.

Freshman Natalie Andersen has been on a tear for the Jags having scored in double-figures in each of her last three games, including a career-high 16 points against UT Martin in IUPUI's last game. Andersen has also been on fire from deep, hitting three threes in each of those games for a total of 9-for-19 in those three contests (47.3 percent).

Macee Williams has also been consistent for head coach Austin Parkinson, scoring in double-figures in each of the last three and four of the five games this year. Williams has scored 17, 17 and 15 in her last three games respectively and shot 58.3 percent from the field in those games. Williams also grabbed her second double-double of the season with 10 rebounds against Butler. Williams is also one point shy of hitting the 1,000-career point mark.

JAG SCRATCHES
LAST TIME OUT (51-57 loss at UT Martin - 11/25)

• IUPUI lost its third-straight game with the six-point defeat to UT Martin.
• Natalie Andersen posted a career-high with 16 points against Skyhawks. Andersen has scored in double-figures in each of the last three games and has hit three threes in each of those games.
• Macee Williams was the only other Jaguar to score in double-figures with 15 points. Williams leads the Jaguars with 13.8 points per game. Williams also pulled down seven rebounds.
• Katelyn O'Reilly led IUPUI with eight rebounds as the Jags outrebounded UT Martin.
• IUPUI was ice cold in the first half against UT Martin, scoring only six first quarter points and 17 points overall in the first 20 minutes. The Jags shot just 20 percent in the first half and was 1-for-13 from three point range.
• The Jaguars came in to the game shooting over 40 percent from behind the arc but went just 4-for-26 from deep against the Skyhawks (15.4 percent). It was the lowest three-point percentage for the Jaguars since shooting 11.8 percent (2-for-17) against Oakland on Feb. 14, 2019.

 
BATTLING THE RED STORM

• This will be the first meeting all-time between IUPUI and St. John's. IUPUI has only played four games against teams from the state of New York in its history. The last time IUPUI took on a team from the Empire State was a 75-56 win over St. Francis back in 2011.
• It is the second game between IUPUI and a game between a member of the Big East this season with the first matchup a loss for IUPUI at Butler (Nov. 20).
• IUPUI has won its last four regular season neutral site games. The last time IUPUI lost a regular season neutral site game was against Montana State back in 2014-15.

 
BREAKING THE SLUMP

• IUPUI is off to its worst start since 2014-15 when the Jags were also 2-3 through their first five games. IUPUI would lose the next three games they played to start the season 2-6.
• In the previous four seasons, the soonest IUPUI had lost its fourth game on the season was the 10th game of the year. This happened last season.

SCOUTING ST. JOHN'S

• St. John's is riding high early in the season with a 4-1 record and have won its last two games, with wins over Wake Forest and UMass.
• Qadashah Hoppie is on fire for the Red Storm to start the season scoring over 20 points per game on 44 percent shooting from the field and 55 percent from the three-point line.
• Three other players from St. John's are averaging over double-figures as St. John's is averaging over 76 points per contest.
• Early in the season, St. John's is losing the battle on the boards, getting outrebounded by almost four rebounds per game.
• St. John's has done a good job of taking care of the ball, winning the turnover battle by almost three turnovers per game and committing less than 14 turnovers per contest.

UP NEXT

• IUPUI will take on either Elon or UNLV on Sunday (Dec. 1) depending on the results of the games on Saturday.