CHICAGO - The IUPUI basketball team will continue its stretch of five straight road games on Monday night (Feb. 14) when the Jaguars take on UIC (9-14, 5-9 HL) inside Credit Union 1 Arena at 7:00 p.m. Central (8 Eastern). The Jaguars dropped the opening two games of the trip at Purdue Fort Wayne and Cleveland State respectively and will be playing a third road game since departing campus last Wednesday (Feb. 9). 

Two Jaguars notched double-doubles at Cleveland State as B.J. Maxwell recorded his third double-double of the season with 17 points, 11 rebounds and three steals. Freshman Chuks Isitua turned in a career-high 12 points, 10 rebounds (eight rebounds) and two blocked shots in the defeat. Isitua was tasked with playing a season-high 36 minutes and made 6-of-8 from the free throw line. 

IUPUI (2-21, 0-12 HL) is looking to avenge an earlier loss to the Flames by two points at Indiana Farmers Coliseum back on Jan. 10. UIC opted to foul Bakari LaStrap in the closing seconds with a three-point lead, forcing the IUPUI point guard to make the first and intentionally miss the second. Jonah Carrasco was able to corral the rebound, but unable to get a shot to the rim at the final horn. LaStrap had a team-high 16 points off the IUPUI bench and both Maxwell and Carrasco had 10 points apiece. Kevin Johnson led UIC with 17 points and Zion Griffin added 15.  

SCOUTING UIC
UIC is 9-14 overall and 5-9 in Horizon League play. The Flames knocked off Horizon League leader Cleveland State on the road last week before falling at Purdue Fort Wayne in the second game of the trip. Damaria Franklin leads UIC in scoring (18.1 ppg) and rebounding (7.1 rpg) while Kevin Johnson paces the Flames in assists (5.0 apg) and threes made (39) and is second on the team in scoring (13.3 ppg). Zion Griffin also averages double-digits at 10.3 points per game. 

SERIES NOTES
UIC leads the all-time series by a 10-3 margin and has won five of the six meetings in Chicago. IUPUI swept last season's two games before UIC took the opening game of the series this year, 67-65, in Indianapolis. 

UP NEXT
IUPUI will continue the stretch of five straight road games on Thursday (Feb. 17) when the Jaguars trek to Moon Township, Pa., to face Robert Morris. 

Game Notes (click here for the full PDF packet)

QUICK HITTERS

• Tonight marks the 14th all-time meeting between IUPUI and UIC on the hardwood. The Jags are just 3-10 all-time against the Flames and 2-5 in the seven games in Chicago.  
• Graduate transfer B.J. Maxwell tallied his 1,000th collegiate point last Thursday night (Feb. 10) as part of his team-high 19-point effort. Maxwell has 1,028 career points, spanning four schools at the Division I and Division II levels. Maxwell had 385 points at Abilene Christian, 2 at Detroit Mercy, 371 at St. Edward's University and has 270 this season at IUPUI. 
• Over his past five games, Maxwell is averaging 17.4 points and 6.8 rebounds per game. 
• In his past four games, all as a starter, freshman Chuks Isitua is averaging 7.5 points, 7.8 rebounds and 1.5 blocked shots per game.  
• IUPUI has used 11 different players this season and amazingly, all 11 have scored in double-digits at least once this season. B.J. Maxwell has a team-high 12 double-digit scoring games this season and Bakari LaStrap has done so nine times. Mike DePersia was the last of the 11 Jaguars to score in double-digits this season, doing so against Northern Kentucky on Jan. 22.
• Only two Jaguars have played all 23 games this season - Bakari LaStrap and Chuks Isitua. Every other IUPUI player has missed at least one game this season due to injury or COVID protocols. IUPUI has had just six players in uniform in each of its past six games and likely will have just six in uniform going forward as five different players have suffered season ending injuries.
• Maxwell leads IUPUI in scoring (12.3 ppg), rebounding (4.9 rpg), minutes played (32.5 mpg), free throw percentage (80.6%), free throws (50) and threes made (28) and second on the squad in steals (19). Maxwell has led IUPUI in scoring 12 times this year and has tallied 20-or-more in a game twice.
• The IUPUI basketball team had a 3.23 grade point average for the fall with 10 of the 14 team members notching a 3.0 or better. Nathan McClure had a perfect 4.0 in the fall and Stanton had a 3.95 mark. As a team, the Jaguars currently have a cumulative 3.37 team GPA.

    FANTASTIC VOYAGE
    IUPUI is amidst a five-game road stretch between Feb. 10-19 as the team will log 1,612 miles and more than 26 hours on the bus. During this stretch, IUPUI will play road games at Purdue Fort Wayne (Feb. 10), Cleveland State (Feb. 12), UIC (Feb. 14), Robert Morris (Feb. 17) and Youngstown State (Feb. 19). 
    The Jaguars will spend roughly 30 hours at home in Indy following tonight's game before trekking 350-plus miles east to Moon Township, Pa., for the Feb. 17 game at Robert Morris. 

    SIX STRONG
    IUPUI has played its past six games with just six in uniform as injuries have ravaged the roster. It began in the preseason when Zach Gunn was lost to a season ending injury and four others (Jonah Carrasco, Bobby Harvey, KJ Pruitt and recently departed Azariah Seay) have since been lost for the season. Carrasco became the most recent to be bitten by the injury bug, suffering a season-ender against East-West on Jan. 31. In addition, senior Dimitar Pandev is no longer on campus after having returned to Macedonia at the start of the spring semester.
    Lastly, two freshmen (Kaleb Edwards and Derek Petersen) won't suit up this season as redshirts, leaving head coach Matt Crenshaw with just six in uniform. 

    GET DEFENSIVE
    Through a combination of pace and production, IUPUI is second in the Horizon League in scoring defense, allowing 67.7 points per game. 

    CSU TIDBITS
    IUPUI shot a season-low 27.3 percent at Cleveland State on Saturday, connecting on just 15-of-55 field goal attempts... the Jaguars did grab a season-high 18 offensive boards, but converted those into just 11 second chance points... both B.J. Maxwell (17 pts, 11 reb) and Chuks Isitua (12 pts, 10 reb) had double-doubles at CSU with Maxwell registering his third of the year and Isitua getting the first of his career.

    JERSEY MIKE DELIVERS
    Junior Mike DePersia currently leads the Horizon League (22nd nationally) with a 2.62 assist-to-turnover ratio, having delivered 55 assists against just 21 miscues. He recently moved into the top-15 in the league in assists at 3.06/game and had a season-high six assists and no turnovers against Robert Morris last Saturday (Feb. 5). Included in those six assists was the 200th dime of his collegiate career.
    He's only had more turnovers than assists in a game once this year and just eight times in his 68 career games played. 
    Last season he ranked No. 3 in the country with a 3.74 assist-to-turnover ratio, delivering 71 assists against just 19 miscues. In league play, he upped that figure to 4.13. His 3.74 mark last season easily eclipsed the previous IUPUI single-season mark, which was 3.30 set by Taj Hawkins back in 2001-02.
    DePersia tied IUPUI's single-game record with 14 assists in a game in a Feb. 12 win over UIC, doing so without committing a turnover. He had a six-game span where he didn't turn the ball over once, dishing out 31 assists during that span. 
    His current 2.57 career assist-to-turnover ratio (211 assists / 82 turnovers) is in line to set a new IUPUI career records. The current IUPUI career record in the category is 2.16 as Brady Adkins had 261 assists against just 121 turnovers from 1994-1996.  
    
    CLOSE, BUT NO CIGAR
    IUPUI put up a strong showing, but ultimately fell short against Youngstown State at home on Feb. 3, 61-55. IUPUI was behind 28-16 with 4:43 left in the opening half, but used an 18-2 run spanning the two halves to take a 34-30 lead with 16:41 left. YSU fired back with a 7-0 run and never relinquished the lead over the final 13 minutes. 
    It was a two possession game for much of the final 10 minutes, but IUPUI was unable to get over the hump. B.J. Maxwell (career-high 22 pts) and Bakari LaStrap (15 pts, 7 reb) led the way as IUPUI shot 46 percent from the floor and outrebounded the Penguins by a 34-29 margin. However, IUPUI committed 17 turnovers and saw the guests outscore them by a 16-2 margin in points off turnovers. 

    JONAH TIES THE BLOCK MARK
    Not only did Jonah Carrasco register his first career double-double against East-West on Monday (Jan. 31) with 13 points and 10 boards, he also tied the IUPUI single-game record with seven blocked shots. 
    Coming in, 6-foot-6 John Hester held the single-game record, having swatted seven shots against Indiana Tech on Jan. 21, 1997. 

    PG PLAY
    The past 13 games, sophomore Bakari LaStrap is averaging 10.5 points and 2.7 assists per game. 
    Fellow point guard junior Mike DePersia is rounding back into form after suffering an injury earlier this season. The past nine games (eight starts), DePersia has played 34.6 minutes per game while averaging 7.1 points, 3.8 rebounds and 3.6 assists per game while turning it over just 13 times total. During that same eight-game span, he's shooting 10-of-24 (41.7 percent) from three-point range.

    THIN BENCH
    IUPUI's bench was averaging nearly 20 points per game for the bulk of the season before injuries beset the roster. IUPUI got at least 10 bench points in each of the first 17 games of the season, but recently put up a goose egg at Cleveland State.
    For the season, IUPUI reserves are averaging 15.7 points per game. 

    CRAFTY VETERAN
    Maxwell is an interesting case study in today's new world of college basketball as he's entering his seventh year of college this season. After redshirting his opening season (2015-16) at Abilene Christian, he played three full seasons at ACU before transferring out for a fifth season. He played just two games at Detroit Mercy in 2019-20 before suffering a season ending injury and receiving another season of eligibility. He spent all of last season at Saint Edward's University in Austin, Texas, where he averaged 18.6 points and 5.3 boards per game while earning NABC Second Team All-District honors.
    After all NCAA student-athletes were granted an additional year of eligibility due to COVID-19 issues, Maxwell opted to join the IUPUI program for a seventh season of schooling. He enters this season having played 94 collegiate basketball games and having scored 758 points across both NCAA Division I and II levels.     

    A GRAND NIGHT
    Maxwell's journey has spanned four schools in three different states at both the Division I and Division II levels, but through it all, he's pumped in more than 1,000 collegiate points. Maxwell has 1,028 collegiate points entering play - 385 at Abilene Christian, 2 at Detroit Mercy, 371 at St. Edward's University and 270 this season at IUPUI.