INDIANAPOLIS – IUPUI women's basketball got the season started in a big way with a 65-48 win over Ball State on Tuesday (Nov. 5). The Jags were led by Rachel McLimore, who finished with 18 points in her Jaguar debut.

McLimore, who sat out last season after transferring from DePaul, scored her game-high 18 points on 6-for-11 shooting, hitting 2-of-3 threes and going an perfect 4-for-4 from the free throw line. McLimore also finished with three rebounds, three steals and one assist.

"It feels amazing to be back out there," said McLimore. "I feel like the sitting out the last year let me grow by game and get better but it was nice to finally play. My teammates hit me at the right time and got me going."

Reining Horizon League Player of the Year Macee Williams kickstarted her junior campaign with a double-double, scoring 15 points and grabbing 11 rebounds, including five offensive boards. Sydney Roule was the other Jaguar to finish in double figures, tallying 10 points, hitting two threes and going 4-for-4 from the line.

"I am really proud of [Macee's] conditioning," said head coach Austin Parkinson. "She was out for a bit of the preseason and for her to play as many minutes as she did, she rebounded incredibly."

IUPUI (1-0) did not shoot well from the field, only hitting 38 percent of their shots and 39 percent from three but the Jags earned a huge advantage at the free throw line over Ball State (0-1). IUPUI earned 25 trips to the line hitting 20. Williams led the Jags at the stripe, going 7-for-9. Ball State managed to get to the line 22 times but only made 12.

Both teams showed strong defensive intensity throughout the game as Ball State committed 26 turnovers, 16 coming off of Jaguar steals which led to 17 points but the Jags also committed 23 turnovers.

"Really, really proud about how we played, especially defensively," said Parkinson. "I had no idea what to expect from our practices…When we got out there tonight we had active hands and forced a lot of turnovers."

The Jags took a 31-17 lead in to the half but the Cardinals started to chip away at the lead in the first few minutes after the break.

Ball State had cut the lead to ten halfway through the third quarter but IUPUI responded with a bucket from Hoopingarner and the Sydney Roule got in to the action. Over the last 4:38 of the quarter, the junior scored eight points, including hitting two threes as IUPUI went from up 12 to up 20 before a jumper at the buzzer cut IUPUI's lead to 50-32 as the game headed to its final 10 minutes.

In the last frame, Ball State got the lead down to 15 with just over four minutes to play but free throws by McLimore and Roule ended any threat the Cardinals would put up the rest of the way.

Ball State was led by Thelma Dis Agustsdottir, who was the only Cardinal in double figures with 11 points.

The game got off to a slow sloppy start with IUPUI outscoring Ball State 12-6 after ten minutes but the teams combining for 18 turnovers. McLimore finished with seven points in the first quarter scoring the first four points of the season for the Jags on two free throws and a jumper before closing out the quarter with a three from Hoopingarner.

Williams did not get going for the Jags until the second quarter, scoring her first points of the season 11 seconds in to the second on a layup. Williams later went on a 4-1 run with all four points coming from the charity stripe as the Jaguars pushed their lead to 18-9.

After a basket by Ball State, McLimore answered with a layup and another three. Natalie Andersen hit her first-career three and after a Hoopingarner free throw and Allen layup, IUPUI had used an 11-0 run to increase the lead to 29-11.

JAG SCRATCHES

• The win is the third-straight season opening win for the Jags in as many seasons.
•  IUPUI earned its first victory over Ball State in six tries.
• The leading scorer in each of the last two season openers for IUPUI have been transfers as Katelyn O'Reilly scored 22 points over Purdue Northwest last season.
• Holly Hoopingarner and Destiny Perkins stuffed the stat sheet for the Jags. Hoopingarner finished the night with eight points, three assists and four steals. Perkins scored seven, dished out a team-high four assists, pulled down four rebounds and had two steals.
• The 16 steals are the most for IUPUI since the Jags had 17 steals against Georgetown (Ky.) on Nov. 13, 2017.
• IUPUI has now won 20-straight regular season games against teams from Indiana. The Jags last loss to a team from Indiana in the regular season was a 68-55 loss to Indiana on Dec. 7, 2014. IUPUI will play at Butler later this season (Nov. 20).

UP NEXT
IUPUI will be at home to take on Southern Illinois on Tuesday (Nov. 12) in the Jungle beginning at 7 p.m.