LAS VEGAS, Nev. – IUPUI women's basketball snapped a three-game losing streak with an 85-78 win over St. John's at the Lady Rebel Roundup hosted by UNLV on Saturday (Nov. 30). The Jaguars will take on Elon in the championship game of the tournament on Sunday (Dec. 1) at 4:30 p.m.

IUPUI (3-3), withstood a late rally by the Red Storm to hold on to the win. With 49 seconds left in the game, two Destiny Perkins free throws put IUPUI up by seven but St. John's did not go quietly. With 18 seconds to go, the Red Storm hit three free throws to make it a three-point game but Holly Hoopingarner was able to secure the win with two free throws at the other end.

"Tremendous effort by our players against a really good St. John's team," said head coach Austin Parkinson. "I was really happy with the poise of our team being able to hold a fourth quarter lead. Macee was a stud tonight inside and on the glass and I also though Natalie played with a ton of confidence in her first career start and she just keeps getting better."

The Jags were led by Macee Williams who notched her third double-double of the season with 20 points and 14 rebounds. In the first quarter, Williams became the 26^th player in IUPUI history to score 1,000 career points as a Jaguar.
Williams was 8-for-14 from the field and a perfect 4-for-4 from the free throw line as the Jags had a stellar day at the stripe going 15-for-16. Natalie Andersen again topped her career-high pouring in 19 points as the freshman was 7-for-11 from the field and went 4-for-7 from behind the arc.

After struggling from the floor in the loss to UT Martin, IUPUI shot much better, going 30-for-62 (48 percent) for the game and shooting over 50 percent in both the second and fourth quarters. The Jags dominated the Red Storm in the paint, outscoring St. John's 40-26 and despite hitting fewer threes, 12-to-10, IUPUI shot 43.5 percent from deep.

Parkinson's squad held a lead going in to the fourth quarter for the fourth-straight game as the Jags were up 64-60 after the first 30 minutes. In each of the previous three, the lead had slipped away and IUPUI called a timeout quickly after two straight buckets for St. John's tied up the game.

IUPUI's first basket of the quarter broke the tie with a three-point play from Williams and a three by Perkins make the run 6-1 before St. John's hit a three to cut the lead in half. The Jags would answer any basket St. John's would hit to keep the Red Storm at bay until the game became a free throw battle.

Both Hoopingarner and Morgan Allen also finished the night 4-for-4 from the line and both players finished in double-figures with Allen scoring 12 and Hoopingarner adding 10.

St. John's came out of the gates firing, jumping out to a 13-7 lead. Williams then hit two free throws and a layup before assisting on an Allen layup to tie the game. A three from Sydney Roule put the Jags up 16-15 but St. John's made a late run to take a 20-18 first quarter lead.

Alissa Alston led St. John's with 18 points on 7-for-11 shooting but the Jags held leading scorer Qadashah Hoppie to 14 points on 4-of-14 shooting and 2-for-9 from deep.

The teams went back-and-forth in the second until Andersen and Perkins each hit threes to turn a one-point deficit in to a five-point lead. The Red Storm would cut the lead to two a couple of times in the rest of the quarter but IUPUI took a four-point lead in to the locker room after a Katelyn O'Reilly layup with 30 seconds in the half.

The Jags' lead would grow to as much as eight in the third but IUPUI could never put away St. John's with the Red Storm climbing back in to the game each time, cutting IUPUI's lead to four entering the last quarter of play.