YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio - An undermanned IUPUI basketball team came up short at Youngstown State on Saturday night (Feb. 1) as the host Penguins hit a season-high 12 treys and outgunned the Jaguars, 91-76. The hot shooting hosts connected on 55 percent from the floor and 12-of-27 (44.4 percent) from three-point range, while bullying the Jaguars on the inside to a 44-28 advantage in points in the paint. 

Junior Marcus Burk led the Jaguars with 22 points and Grant Weatherford notched a season-high 19 points on 7-of-10 shooting in the loss. Elyjah Goss collected his ninth double-double of the season with 13 points and 11 boards and Jaylen Minnett added 13 points as well in the loss. 

Darius Quisenberry led five YSU players in double-digits with 22 points and seven assists and Michael Akuchie closed with 15 points and nine rebounds for the victors. 

YSU (13-11, 6-5 HL) blasted out to a double-digit lead in the game's opening six-plus minutes and led by as many as 18 before halftime. Quisenberry scored or assisted on 15 of YSU's first 16 points as the Penguins built a 16-6 lead early. The lead ballooned to 41-23 with 4:12 left before halftime before the Jags ultimately closed the gap to 48-34 by intermission. 

IUPUI (6-18, 2-9 HL) refused to go away though, ripping off an 8-0 run early in the second half, fueled largely by back-to-back threes from Minnett and Burk, before Burk setup a Goss bucket to make it 52-46 with 16:10 remaining. Quisenberry knocked in a jumper to make it an eight-point lead before Minnett swished an improbable three-point attempt to cut YSU's lead to five. 

Even after YSU rebuilt a double-digit lead, the Jags fired back again, again cutting the YSU lead back to five with 6:48 to play on a Minnett triple. The Jags had two opportunities to make it a one-possession game, but turned it over on the first possession and misfired on a layup on the next trip. Devin Morgan then splashed a trey for the hosts to push the lead back to eight. 

Burk countered with a traditional three-point play, but Akuchie rattled in a triple to extend the lead back to eight again. Each time IUPUI closed within striking distance, YSU countered with a score of its own to keep the Jags at bay. Burk cut the Penguins' lead to 83-76 with 2:13 remaining, but the hosts closed the game with an 8-0 rally to extend the final margin to 15. 

IUPUI figured out the YSU defense in the second half, shooting 57 percent after the break to finish at 49 percent for the game. However, the Penguins connected on 7-of-14 from beyond the arc after the break as six different players made at least one triple. 

Head coach Byron Rimm's squad was limited to just seven players seeing action as sophomore Brandon Kenyon made his third straight start with five points and two boards. Off the bench, Rimm was limited to just two true freshmen as Mike DePersia chimed in with two points, two boards and three assists in 23 minutes and Taveion White added two points in 11 minutes of work. The bench was completely depleted as Isaiah Williams, Zo Tyson, Jakoby Kemp and Jamil Jackson Jr. all missed Saturday's game. 

IUPUI will return home to open a two-game homestand on Thursday (Feb. 6) with an 11:00 a.m. tip-off against Green Bay on ESPN+. Thursday's game will be the third annual 'Readers Become Leaders' contest as thousands of elementary aged students will converge on Indiana Farmers Coliseum for the morning tip.