NEW ORLEANS - The IUPUI basketball team dropped its third and final game of the Big Easy Classic to The Citadel on Friday night (Nov. 25), 74-53. The Jaguars got points from 13 different players as freshman Armon Jarrard scored a team-high eight points off the bench. Four others - John Egbuta, Bryce Monroe, Jonah Carrasco and Caleb Crane - finished with six points apiece in the loss. 

Stephen Clark led The Citadel (4-3) with 26 points on 11-of-18 shooting, and grabbed nine boards, while Elijah Morgan connected on six treys and tallied 22 points. 

"I think we learned a lot about ourselves during this trip," head coach Matt Crenshaw said. "It's hard to get up for three games in three days and we're disappointed to have not gotten a win down here. But, I think the positive thing is that we played a lot of different guys, we learned a lot about our team and we're going to be better in the long run. 

"We've got eight days between now and Milwaukee, so we're going to work incredibly hard to be prepared for the start of Horizon League play."

The Citadel scored the game's first eight points and never looked back, pushing the lead to double-digits midway through the first half. An Egbuta corner three cut the lead to 23-11 with 9:26 remaining before intermission and IUPUI offense, coming off an 84-point game 24 hours prior, hit a screeching halt. The Jags wouldn't score again until their opening possession of the second half when Jlynn Counter dropped in a layup and by then, the Bulldogs had built a 30-point lead. 

IUPUI found life in the second half, shooting 47 percent from the floor and hitting 5-of-13 threes, but never seriously threatened in the final 20 minutes. 

The Citadel finished the game at 44 percent from the floor and 30 percent from three-point range while IUPUI shot just 34 percent overall. The Bulldogs bullied their way inside, outrebounding IUPUI 43-27 and outscoring IUPUI 38-18 in the paint. 

Chris Osten, who was coming off back-to-back double-doubles, was held to just four points and five boards due to foul trouble. Carrasco contributed six points and four boards on a perfect shooting night off the bench. 

Crane made the most of his opportunity in the final minutes, hitting corner threes from each corner, while Kaleb Edwards scored on a runner and had an assist. Derek Petersen also had a steal and an assist in the closing minutes. 

IUPUI will return to action on Saturday, Dec. 3 when they open Horizon League play at Milwaukee at 7:00 p.m. Central (8 Eastern) on ESPN+.