INDIANAPOLIS - The IUPUI basketball team stuck to its gameplan and put up a stingy defensive effort but was unable to muster enough offense to pull off an upset in head coach Matt Crenshaw's head coaching debut in falling at Butler, 56-47. 

IUPUI (0-1) held Butler to just 34 percent shooting and six second half field goals, but launched a hailstorm of misses at the other end, shooting just 37.5 percent overall and 3-of-23 (13 percent) from three-point range.

B.J. Maxwell had a team-high 14 points on 4-of-11 shooting in his IUPUI debut and sophomore Bakari LaStrap chimed in with eight points off the bench. Chuck Harris scored a game-high 16 points for Butler (1-0), doing the bulk of his damage at the foul line where he went 10-for-13. 

IUPUI missed 14 straight threes over the course of the evening until two late connections made things interesting. Maxwell stuck a tough step-back trey with 4:33 left and then swatted a Bryce Nze layup attempt, leading to a Boston Stanton III three with 3:45 remaining to cut the lead inside 10. 

The Jags had a chance to make it a two possession game after LaStrap made a steal and fed Maxwell with just over a minute to play, but Maxwell missed the contested finish and the Bulldogs were able to salt away the game late. 

Aside from Maxwell and LaStrap, IUPUI was hard pressed to find much offensively, particularly from the perimeter. 

"We had some good ones early, but I also thought we should have driven it more," Crenshaw said. "We just didn't always execute there where I thought we could take another dribble or get switched off on a big and try to get around them. 

"We would've liked to have taken about 10 less threes, but I want my guys to shoot it when they're open and shoot it with confidence."

Confident or not, it was heavy sledding for both teams early as the Jags misfired on their first five attempts of the game, all from beyond the arc. Maxwell finally got loose for a fast break bucket after collecting a steal near midcourt more than four minutes into the contest. After Maxwell hit a tough wing three, the Jags took a brief lead at 7-5 after Bobby Harvey freed Chuks Isitua for an easy layup with a baseline drive. The game remained close for the duration of the first half as Butler seized their largest lead of the half at the final horn as Harris scored on a driving layup as time expired to make it 29-19 at the break. 

Butler extended the lead out to as many as 15 on a number of occasions, but the Jaguars' defense refused to let the hosts run away. Playing largely zone and rotating bodies, IUPUI was able to neutralize the Bulldogs' size advantage. 

Crenshaw had 10 different players play at least 15 minutes with nine different players cracking the scoring column. 

"We do have some depth and we want to be able to play a lot of different guys and cause some matchup problems with some different combinations," Crenshaw said. 

Azariah Seay, who had a team-high 20 points in IUPUI's lone exhibition, had six points and four boards off the bench and Stanton had five points and three assists in his collegiate debut. Isitua had four points and a pair of blocked shots in his debut and KJ Pruitt tallied four in his first career game. 

Much of IUPUI's troubles were self inflicted as the Jags made just 8-of-15 (53.3 percent) at the free throw line. 

The Jaguars will return to action on Thursday night (Nov. 11) when they travel south to face another in-state foe in the University of Evansville at 6:00 p.m. CST (7 Eastern) on ESPN3.