YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio - Coming off a decisive 66-56 win at Robert Morris on Thursday, the IUPUI basketball team will cap an arduous stretch of five straight road games on Saturday (Feb. 19) when the Jaguars face Youngstown State (17-11, 11-7 HL) at 2:00 p.m. The game will be the Jaguars' final regular season road game of the 2021-2022 campaign. 

Despite being limited to just six players for the entire month of February thus far, head coach Matt Crenshaw's team has continued to improve, finally dialing up a 10-point road win on Thursday. B.J. Maxwell and Bakari LaStrap tallied 18 points each in the win and Mike DePersia scored 11 of his 13 points in the second half. The Jaguars outscored Robert Morris 42-32 in the second half after the teams were tied at 24 all at the break. IUPUI (3-22, 1-13 HL) had a near miss at UIC on Monday, falling to the Flames by three points on the road. 

Given the thin rotation, IUPUI has seen a number of players up their output recently, keyed by Maxwell. The Texas-native is scoring 17.0 points per game over the past seven games while freshman Chuks Isitua is averaging 7.2 points and 8.0 rebounds per game since moving into the starting lineup six games ago. Maxwell recently went past 1,000 collegiate points, spanning four schools and both the NCAA Division I and Division II levels. 

QUOTABLE
"I'm just so proud of these young men. They've continued to fight all season long and tonight they were finally rewarded. We've learned a lot and learned a lot about ourselves, so it was nice to see them finally get to enjoy a win and play with the confidence that they could win. All six guys made plays and left it out there tonight and I couldn't be more proud of them as a group," head coach Matt Crenshaw said following Thursday's win at Robert Morris. 

SCOUTING YOUNGSTOWN STATE
YSU enters at 17-11 overall and 11-7 in Horizon League play. Michael Akuchie leads the Penguins in scoring (14.1 ppg), rebounding (7.9 rpg), blocked shots (19) and minutes played (30.9 mpg) while Tevin Olison leads the team in threes made (53) and steals (26). YSU shoots 45 percent from the floor and 35 percent from three-point range and outrebounds opponents by nearly three boards per game. 

SERIES NOTES
Youngstown State leads the all-time series by a 16-2 margin and 9-2 in the 11 games played at the Beeghly Center. The Penguins have won the last two meetings between the two teams, including a 61-55 matchup in Indy back on Feb. 3 of this season.  

UP NEXT
IUPUI will return home to host its final two regular season games of the season, beginning with Milwaukee on Thursday (Feb. 19) at 8:00 p.m. at Indiana Farmers Coliseum on ESPN+. 

Game Notes (click here for the full PDF packet)

QUICK HITTERS

• IUPUI is coming off its first Division I victory of the year, defeating Robert Morris on Thursday night (Feb. 17), 66-56. The Jaguars outscored RMU 16-7 over the final five minutes, keyed by 18 points apiece from B.J. Maxwell and Bakari LaStrap and 13 points from Mike DePersia. IUPUI led for over 30 minutes and led by as many as 11 at one point. RMU's largest lead of the game was two points.Tonight's game marks the 19th meeting all-time between the two teams with YSU having won 16 of the prior 18 meetings. IUPUI is 2-9 in the 11 meetings in Youngstown.

  -Graduate transfer B.J. Maxwell tallied his 1,000th collegiate point on Feb. 10 at Purdue Fort Wayne as part of his team-high 19-point effort. Maxwell has 1,061 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 303 this season at IUPUI.

  -Over his past seven games, Maxwell is averaging 17.0 points and 6.4 rebounds per game and has scored in double-digits in all seven of those contests.

  -In his past six games, all as a starter, freshman Chuks Isitua is averaging 7.2 points and 8.0 rebounds 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 16 double-digit scoring games this season and Bakari LaStrap has done so 11 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 25 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 eight 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 (12.6 ppg), rebounding (5.0 rpg), minutes played (33.1 mpg), free throw percentage (80.3%), free throws (57) and threes made (31) and second on the squad in steals (24). Maxwell has led IUPUI in scoring 14 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
    Today caps IUPUI's 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 today's contest at Youngstown State (Feb. 19).
    The Jaguars spent roughly 30 hours at home in Indy following Monday's game at UIC before trekking 350-plus miles to Moon Township, Pa., for Thursday's game at Robert Morris.

SIX STRONG
    IUPUI has played its past eight 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 was 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 66.8 points per game.

DAT DUB
    IUPUI finally got the monkey off its back, capturing a road win at Robert Morris on Thursday (Feb. 17), 66-56. IUPUI hit 7-of-8 from three in the second half to finish at 50 percent for the game. B.J. Maxwell and Bakari LaStrap both finished with a game-high 18 points and Mike DePersia scored 11 of his 13 points after halftime.
    The win was IUPUI's first victory over a Division I foe this season and the Jaguars' first road win of the season.

JERSEY MIKE DELIVERS
    Junior Mike DePersia currently leads the Horizon League (31st nationally) with a 2.48 assist-to-turnover ratio, having delivered 62 assists against just 25 miscues. He recently moved into the top-15 in the league in assists at 3.10/game and had a season-high six assists and no turnovers in the first meeting with Robert Morris on 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 70 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, 2021 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 2.53 career assist-to-turnover ratio (218 assists / 86 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.

THE FIRST MEETING
    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 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 14 games, sophomore Bakari LaStrap is averaging 11.1 points and 2.9 assists per game.
    Fellow point guard junior Mike DePersia is rounding back into form after suffering an injury earlier this season. The past 11 games (10 starts), DePersia has played 35.3 minutes per game while averaging 7.6 points, 3.7 rebounds and 3.5 assists per game while turning it over just 17 times total. During that same 11-game span, he's shooting 13-of-31 (41.9 percent) from three-point range and 21-of-25 (84 percent) from the foul line.

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 14.9 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 entered 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 1,061 collegiate points entering play - 385 at Abilene Christian, 2 at Detroit Mercy, 371 at St. Edward's University and 302 this season at IUPUI.