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INDIANAPOLIS - Junior Camron Justice scored a game-high 26 points, including five treys, and sophomore Jaylen Minnett chimed in with 18 points and four assists off the Jaguars' bench as IUPUI (14-9, 6-4 HL) nipped Horizon League leader Northern Kentucky (18-5, 8-2 HL) inside Indiana Farmers Coliseum on Friday night (Feb. 1). The win was the Jaguars' third-in-a-row and snapped NKU's six-game winning streak. 

Tyler Sharpe and Dantez Walton scored 20 apiece for NKU and the league's preseason Player of the Year, Drew McDonald, finished with 14 points and six boards. 

"This was a total team win. I just told our guys [in the locker room], I'm proud of how they fought and it was just a really good college basketball game. They went at us, we went at them and it was back and forth the whole way," head coach Jason Gardner said. "I was proud of how we responded and really showed a lot of fight tonight. That's a really, really good basketball team and we just went toe to toe with them for 40 minutes. 

"That was a big time performance and a big time game."

Justice, who scored in double-digits for the 22nd straight time and hit for at least 20 for the 12th time in his 23-game career, was quick to defer credit. 

"Jaylen Minnett - plain and simple. Jaylen got us going offensively [in the first half]," Justice said. 

NKU surged out to a 25-15 lead at the midpoint of the first half before IUPUI, which finished at 52 percent shooting against the league's best defense, got hot. Minnett seemingly stepped into a phone booth and emerged as Superman, igniting the Jaguars' attack with a bevy of drives and short jumpers. He then connected with 7-foot-1 Ahmed Ismail with an assist as the Jaguars' tallest player tied the game at 26 all by stroking a wide open three from the top of the key. NKU briefly regained the lead at 28-26 on a pair of McDonald free throws, but Justice and senior Evan Hall accounted for the team's next 13 points as the Jags built a 43-30 lead. 

NKU scored the final four points of the half on two Sharpe free throws and a Walton jumper to make it 43-34 at the break. 

The Norse continued to chip away, finally pulling even at 58 all with 10:22 remaining when McDonald rolled in a 12-footer over Hall. However, Minnett had the answer as he buried a corner trey on the Jaguars' next possession to give the Jags the lead for good. After NKU misfired on a trey, Minnett drove the lane and floated a lob to Elyjah Goss, who thundered home a two-handed dunk from the baseline. 

Seemingly each time NKU pulled close, IUPUI responded with a bucket. 

The Norse closed within four on multiple occasions in the final minute, but the Jags made enough free throws to stave off the guests. IUPUI finished 17-of-22 (77 percent) at the free throw line and 8-of-19 (42.1 percent) from three-point range. NKU was an efficient 51 percent from the floor, but just 7-of-21 from distance. 

Hall hit 7-of-10 shots on the interior for his 14 points and Ismail closed with seven off the bench. Both Grant Weatherford and D.J. McCall added six apiece. 

IUPUI will continue the homestand on Sunday (Feb. 3) when the Jaguars host Wright State at 1:00 p.m. inside the Coliseum. That game will broadcast on ESPN+ as Greg Rakestraw (pxp) and Hall of Famer Bob Lovell (analyst) are on the call. Tickets are available via TicketMaster or at the Coliseum box office.