INDIANAPOLIS - The IUPUI basketball team will kickoff a four-game homestand on Thursday night (Jan. 12) when the Jaguars host in-state foe Purdue Fort Wayne (11-6, 3-3 HL) inside Indiana Farmers Coliseum at 7:00 p.m.. Tickets are available by clicking here and the game will be broadcast on ESPN+ as Greg Rakestraw (pxp) and Hall of Famer Bob Lovell (analyst) describe the action. The first 100 IUPUI students in attendance will receive a FREE Jaguars seat cushion, while supplies last and the game is sponsored by IU Health. 

On the court, the Jaguars were tough luck losers at Robert Morris on Monday night as they erased a 15-point halftime deficit before falling late in a 77-70 defeat. Graduate transfer Chris Osten hit 8-of-10 shots for a career-high 21 points and Jlynn Counter chipped in 14 points. Junior Daylan Hamilton had 11 points off the bench and freshman Amhad Jarrard closed with nine points and five boards. IUPUI outrebounded the Colonials by nine boards, but committed 17 turnovers, leading to 18 RMU points. 

QUOTABLE
"I thought we showed a lot of heart and grit tonight. We got down big at halftime and honestly, we never quit. We really had some guys step up make some big time plays to get us back in the game. We still had some key turnovers and missed some key free throws late in the game and that was the difference. We need to cut down some of the careless turnovers and we'll continue to work on that, but I think some of our freshmen really grew up tonight," head coach Matt Crenshaw said.

SCOUTING PURDUE FORT WAYNE
Purdue Fort Wayne comes in at 11-6 overall and 3-3 in Horizon League play. The Mastodons were picked as co-favorites to win the league according to the preseason polls and are 4-4 away from home this season. They're coming off a 74-70 home loss to Milwaukee on Saturday (Jan. 7), despite a 22-point performance from Jarred Godfrey and 16 points from Damian Chong Qui. Indianapolis-native Ra Kpedi just missed a double-double with nine points and 10 boards. For the season, Godfrey (16.5 ppg) and Bobby Planutis (12.1 ppg) lead the team in scoring and Chong Qui averages 9.9 points per game. Kpedi is the team's top rebounding at 8.2 boards per contest. Collectively, PFW relies heavily on the three as four different players have made more than 30 triples on the year. 

UP NEXT
IUPUI will continue the homestand against Cleveland State on Saturday (Jan. 14) at noon inside Indiana Farmers Coliseum. Tickets are available by clicking here.  

Tidbits heading into today's game (click here for full game notes (.pdf))
    FREQUENT FOE
    Tonight marks the 52nd meeting all-time between IUPUI and Purdue Fort Wayne - making the Mastodons the most frequent foe in IUPUI's basketball history. IUPUI has played Oakland 50 times and Western Illinois 49 times. 
    IUPUI's 32 wins in the series is its second-most against any opponent, trailing only IUPUI's 33 victories over Western Illinois in the all-time series. 

    FIRST THURSDAY
    Tonight's game marks IUPUI's first Thursday night Horizon League game of the season. IUPUI has been relegated to a Saturday-Monday schedule in the first three weeks of league play.  

    OSTEN'S BEEN AWESOME
    In the three games in the 2023 calendar year, graduate transfer Chris Osten has been nothing short of awesome. In those three contests, Osten is averaging 18.3 points and 6.0 rebounds per game while shooting a nearly ridiculous 79.3 percent (23-of-29) from the field. Osten is coming off a career-high 21 points (8-10 FG, 5-7 FT) at Robert Morris on Monday (Jan. 9).
    Osten is currently shooting 65.1 percent for the season, chasing the school record for single-season shooting percentage (Jon Avery - 67.9 percent in 2008-09). 
    Coming into this season, he had scored in double-digits just one time in his Division I career
in stops at both Arizona State and Northern Illinois, and never had a double-double. However,
in 17 games this season, Osten has hit double-figures nine times and registered four
double-doubles.

    THREE TIMES
    IUPUI freshman Vincent Brady II has won the #HLMBB Freshman of the Week Award three times this season, tops in the league. Brady, a 6-foot-4 guard, is second on the team in scoring (9.8 ppg) and leads the squad in minutes played (30.2 mpg) and threes made (29).
    Brady comes in having made at least one three in 12 straight games and in 15 of the team's 17 games this season.   

    FRESH DUBS
    It would appear that Brady will be hovering around double-digits in scoring all season long as he's hit for double-digits in seven of IUPUI's last 10 games after failing to do so in the season's first seven games. 
    The Dec. 5 Green Bay game was his 4th straight game of 15 points or more, becoming the first IUPUI freshman to have at least four straight games of 15 points or more since Alex Young in '08. 
    Freshmen scoring in double-digits has been a rarity for the IUPUI program as just two have done so in the program's Division I-era. Young went on to score 2,286 points in his four-year career and Hill scored 1,619 points in three-plus seasons before being drafted in the first round of the 2008 NBA Draft. 
    Alex Young - 10.8 ppg (2008-09); George Hill - 10.7 ppg (2004-05)

    TOPS IN THE COUNTRY
    IUPUI is tops in the nation, having had 12 different players miss at least one game due to injury or illness, 10 of whom are scholarship student-athletes. Highest on the list are Zach Gunn (out for the season), Bryce Monroe (13 games missed) and DJ Jackson (11 games). Other scholarship student-athletes who have missed multiple games this season include John Egbuta (5 games), Armon Jarrard (5 games), Cooper Dewitt (3 games) and Amhad Jarrard (3 games).
    Behind IUPUI, Wyoming, Vanderbilt and Iona have all had eight student-athletes miss time and both Dayton and Texas State have had seven miss time.  

    SOLID AS A ROC
    Prior to a recent injury, sophomore Jlynn Counter, known as Roc, had a fantastic two-game Indiana Classic just before Christmas, averaging 25.0 points in the two contests. He had a career-high 27 points (10-19 FG, 7-7 FT) and five rebounds against Southern Indiana on Dec. 19 and followed up with 23 points (9-13 FG, 1-1 3's, 4-4 FT) in the Dec. 20 win over Texas A&M Commerce. 
    The Oklahoma-native has climbed to No. 13 in the Horizon League in scoring (13.2 ppg), sixth in field goal percentage (49.1%) and fifth in free throw percentage (82.0%) among qualified players. 

    ALL DAY-LAN
    Quietly, junior Daylan Hamilton has scored in double-digits in four of IUPUI's last five games, averaging 9.8 points per contest during that span. Hamilton had scored in double-digits just twice in the season's first 12 games before doing so in four of the past five. 

    LAST TIME OUT
    At Robert Morris on Monday (Jan. 9), IUPUI trailed 44-29 at halftime, but rallied to come all the way back in the second half. The Jaguars tied the game at 61 all and again at 63-63 before being outscored 14-7 over the game's first five-plus minutes in the 77-70 loss. 
    IUPUI outrebounded RMU by nine for a season-high rebounding margin. 

    IN LEAGUE PLAY... QUICK HITTERS
    In six Horizon League games, IUPUI is outrebounding opponents by 2.0 rebounds per game as Chris Osten (6.2 rpg) and Vincent Brady II (4.8 rpg) lead the way. 
    The flip side - IUPUI's turnover margin in league play has been astonishing as the Jaguars turn it over nearly seven times more than their opponents (-6.83 to/gm) and turn it over 17.7 times per game. Amhad Jarrard (12 ast/10 to) and DJ Jackson (4 ast/2 to) are the only two regulars to have more assists than turnovers in league play.
    The three-point line has continued to be problematic in league play as well as the Jaguars are making just 4,7 treys per game in the league and yielding 9.7 threes per game in the six games. 
    Brady (12.7 ppg), Counter (11.4 ppg) and Osten (10.8 ppg) are all scoring in double-digits in league play. 

    MAGIC MARLON
    On New Year's Eve against Northern Kentucky, Marlon Taylor took full advantage of a rare opportunity for extended action. Coming into the game, Taylor had exactly seven points and eight rebounds in his collegiate career, which began as a walk-on at Indiana State in 2018. He had made 16 prior appearances for the Jaguars and actually took two years away from basketball from 2020-2022. Suffice it to say, he likely wasn't on the scouting report. 
    With virtually half the active roster sidelined with injuries, Taylor was awarded 26 minutes of action and responded with a career-high eight points (4-8 FG), nine rebounds and two assists. 
    He later had a career-high 10 points (4-4 FG, 2-2 3's) at Youngstown State on Jan. 7, doing so in just 11 minutes of work.  

    FRESHIES    
    Of the seven Horizon League Freshman of the Week Awards this season, three have gone to IUPUI players as Vincent Brady II is a two-time recipient and Armon Jarrard is the reigning honoree. 
    Jarrard came off the bench to average 10.5 points and 2.0 rebounds in the two-game Indiana Classic, including a career-high 16 points (4-7 FG, 2-3 3's, 6-7 FT) against Southern Indiana. 
    IUPUI has relied on freshmen since the start of the season with Brady and the Jarrard twins being fixtures in the rotation. A fourth rookie, DJ Jackson, also came in with high expectations, but suffered an injury at the start of the season, and returned to game action on Dec. 31. 
    Here's a look at how the four have performed so far this season.     
Vincent Brady: 29.7 mpg (leads team), 9.9 ppg, 3.6 rpg, 27 3's made (leads team)
Amhad Jarrard: 22.1 mpg (5th on the team), 5.8 ppg, 1.7 apg, 7 steals
Armon Jarrard: 17.5 mpg (7th on the team), 4.3 ppg, 7 3's made (2nd on the team), 15 steals
DJ Jackson (5 games): 15.0 mpg, 3.2 ppg, 2.2 rpg

    FRESH STARTERS
    IUPUI had three freshmen in the starting lineup in the opener as Vincent Brady II, Amhad Jarrard and Armon Jarrard all got the starting nod. The trio, all of whom are Indianapolis natives, combined on four points, five boards and an assist in the opener at Iowa State. 
    A fourth freshman, DJ Jackson, made his first collegiate start on Dec. 31 against NKU. 

    TIGHTEN UP
    In the win over Texas A&M Commerce, IUPUI tightened up to an eight-man rotation by both necessity and success. Daylan Hamilton earned his second straight start and chipped in a career-high 14 points (5-10 FG, 4-7 FT) and four assists. Boston Stanton III, also making a second straight start, had four points and a career-high seven rebounds. 
    The only three that saw time off the bench were Armon Jarrard (5 pts), Jonah Carrasco (3 pts, 3 reb) and Cooper Dewitt (season-high 17 min). 

    4K
    IUPUI hosted its annual NCAA Readers Become Leaders game on Dec. 12 against Spalding University and had a program best 4,114 fans in attendance. The game attracted roughly 3,500 3rd graders from Central Indiana and stressed the importance of creating reading habits at a young age. The 4,114 fans easily surpassed the previous record for an IUPUI home game - 3,327 against Indiana State inside Conseco Fieldhouse on Dec. 23, 2008. 
    The previous record for an IUPUI game inside Indiana Farmers Coliseum was 3,159 in the inaugural game against Indiana State on Nov. 14, 2014. 

    THE MONROE EFFECT
    After missing the first three games of the season to injury, junior transfer Bryce Monroe came in and made a major impact in the Jaguars' lineup. In his four appearances, Monroe led the team in scoring (12.0 ppg) and assists (3.8 apg), despite suffering an injury in his third game back. More importantly, the team as a whole has improved its output. Without Monroe in the lineup, the Jags averaged just 53.4 points per game and scored 65.0 points per game with him available.
    The San Diego-transfer had a monster game at New Orleans on Nov. 24, pumping in 29 points (13-20 FG, 3-6 3's) and seven assists - both of which are the most by an IUPUI player this season. However, Monroe was injured during the New Orleans trip and is currently sidelined indefinitely.  

    BOOK WORMS
    The Jaguars put together a 3.03 team grade point average during the fall semester with 12 members of the team earning a 3.0 or better. Junior John Egbuta was most impressive with a perfect 4.0 mark during the fall.