CHARLESTON, Ill. - The IUPUI basketball team will head to Charleston, Ill., to take on Eastern Illinois (4-5) on Thursday night (Dec. 7) inside EIU's Groniger Arena at 7:00 p.m. CT (8 Eastern). IUPUI (3-6) looks to stop a modest two-game skid as Thursday's game will cap a home-and-home series with the Panthers. EIU won in Indianapolis last season, 70-59. 

IUPUI is coming off a 71-55 home loss to Northern Kentucky, despite shooting an efficient 48.7 percent from the floor and outrebounding NKU 28-23. However, 22 IUPUI turnovers led to the Norse getting 12 more shot attempts than the Jaguars and a 19-9 margin in points off turnovers. 

Junior Jlynn Counter scored 17 points for the second straight game and DJ Jackson finished with eight points off the bench. Qwanzi Samuels came off the bench for the first time this season and closed with six points and six rebounds in the loss. 

QUOTABLE
"Let me tip my hat to (Northern Kentucky). We are trying to get to where they are. They have some experience; they have some gel and they have been through the battles. Turnovers were our downfall today. We just didn't get enough attempts at the rim and against teams like (Northern Kentucky) you can't have lost possessions," head coach Matt Crenshaw said following Saturday's 71-55 loss to Northern Kentucky. 

SCOUTING EIU
EIU is 4-5 to start the season and 3-0 in their three home games with wins over Monmouth College, Coppin State and Eureka College. Notably, the Panthers recently took No. 5 Kansas to the wire inside Allen Fieldhouse in a 71-63 defeat. Jordan Booker leads EIU in scoring (12.4 ppg) and steals (16) while Kooper Jacobi is second on the team in scoring (11.8 ppg) and tops in rebounds (7.4 rpg). EIU has dominated the glass all season long, outrebounding opponents by 7.0 rebounds per game, while also taking good care of the basketball with just 11.8 turnovers per contest. 

INSIDE THE SERIES
IUPUI is 3-4 all-time against EIU and 1-3 in four meetings in Charleston. IUPUI's lone win over the Panthers in Charleston was on Nov. 18, 2009 by a 69-66 score as Hall of Famer Leroy Nobles pumped in a game-high 24 points and Billy Pettiford finished with 11 points and seven rebounds to improve to 2-0 to start the season. 

UP NEXT
IUPUI will face Big Ten foe Minnesota on BTN+ on Tuesday, Dec. 12 at 8:00 p.m. Eastern. 

Notes and Tidbits (click here to download the full IUPUI Game Notes)
    MR. DO-IT-ALL
    In his second season with the program, junior guard Jlynn Counter has become the Jaguars' Mr. Do It All, leading the team in scoring (15.9 ppg), rebounding (4.8 rpg), assists (2.4 apg) and field goal percentage (52.7%). His 52.7 percent from the floor currently ranks third in the Horizon League.  
    Counter, a preseason Second Team All-Horizon League pick, tallied his 500th career point against Elon on Nov. 17 and enters today with 594 points in his two-year career. 

    VERSUS THE PANTHERS
    Eight current Jaguars played in last year's 70-59 home loss to Eastern Illinois, led by Vincent Brady II (16 pts, 5 reb, 2 stl) and Jlynn Counter (11 pts, 7 reb, 4 ast). Others to appear in that contest include Amhad Jarrard (5 pts), John Egbuta (2 pts, 7 reb), Daylan Hamilton (3 pts), Armon Jarrard (3 ast), Cooper Dewitt (13 min) and Derek Petersen (1 min). 

    NEW STARTER
    Cooper Dewitt became the seventh different player to start a game this season against Northern Kentucky, replacing Qwanzi Samuels in the starting five. Dewitt finished with three points and a rebound in 14 minutes while Samuels had six points and six boards in 23 minutes off the bench. 
    Jlynn Counter, Bryce Monroe and Kidtrell Blocker have started all nine games this season while Samuels and Yves Nkomba have started eight each. 

    50-40-90
    The shooting line of 50 percent from the floor, 40 percent from three and 90 percent from the foul line is a bit of a holy grail for basketball players, having only been achieved by 11 players in college basketball history. 
    Albeit small samples sizes, both Jlynn Counter and DJ Jackson are flirting with the numbers to start this season. 
    Counter: 52.7 FG% / 47.4 3FG% / 69.2 FT% 
    Jackson: 50.9 FG% / 20.0 3FG% / 77.8 FT%

    Counter opened the year 4-of-10 from the free throw line, but is 14-for-16 since then, including a perfect 8-for-8 at Wright State last week.

    FREE MONEY
    IUPUI is currently 76th in the country in free throw percentage, hitting 74.1 percent as a team. At Wright State, both Bryce Monroe (9-9) and Jlynn Counter (8-8) enjoyed perfect nights. 

    NINE MAN ROTATION
    Nine different Jaguars are playing at least 12 minutes per game, led by Kidtrell Blocker (28.9 mpg) down to Yves Nkomba (12.6 mpg). 
    Seven of the nine have scored in double-digits at least once this year.

    SEEING RED
    It's likely that both Amhad and Armon Jarrard will redshirt this season. Amhad missed the entire summer and preseason after suffering an injury last season and Armon was limited to just three games this season while playing through an injury. He was shutdown after trying to play at Indiana State on Nov. 14. 
    The Jarrards are one of 21 sets of brothers playing for the same team this season and one of nine sets of twins in Division I basketball. 

    FIRST TO TIP
    IUPUI was the first team in the country to tip-off the 2023-24 season, starting at 11:00 a.m. on Nov. 6 in front of a crowd of 4,867 on the annual NCAA 'Readers Become Leaders' Day at Indiana Farmers Coliseum. 
    The 4,867 represented a new home attendance record for the Jaguars, eclipsing the previous mark of 4,114 from last year's similar event. 

    ROAD KILL
    The road win at Valpo was a welcome event, marking IUPUI's first road win since winning at Robert Morris on Feb. 17, 2022. It was the first road non-conference victory since winning at South Florida on Nov. 13, 2019 at the Cayman Islands Classic. 

    BENCH WORK
    IUPUI is averaging 26.2 points per game from its reserves this season and has gotten at least 21 bench points in all nine games (including three games of 30+). DJ Jackson (8.9 ppg) and Vincent Brady II (6.4) have led the reserves with each having scored in double-digits at least once off the IUPUI bench.
    Despite neither having started a game this season, Jackson ranks third and Brady ranks fifth on the team in scoring.  

    FIRST MAN OFF
    Sophomore Abdou Samb (5.7 ppg, 2.8 rpg) has been IUPUI's first man off the bench in seven of nine games this season, including seven straight before Jackson was the first reserve against NKU on Saturday. 

    ARC ISSUES
    IUPUI has struggled with the three-point line this season, both offensively and defensively. 
    Offensively, IUPUI ranks 356th (of 361) in the country in three-point percentage at 24.4 percent. The Jaguars' 3.4 made/game rank 358th nationally. 
    Defensively, IUPUI is No. 326 nationally in allowing opponents to shoot 36.9 percent from beyond the arc. 

    BRYCE WAS NICE
    A day after his 22nd birthday, senior Bryce Monroe dropped 20 points (7-16 FG, 2-5 3's, 4-4 FT) to go along with four rebounds and four steals in the win at Valpo. It marked his second 20-point game of his IUPUI career and came on the heels of being held scoreless in the season opener against Spalding. 

    RETURNING CREW
    The IUPUI roster enjoyed considerable continuity from a season ago, bringing back 10 letterwinners from a season ago, including three primary starters in Jlynn Counter, Vincent Brady II and DJ Jackson. 
    Counter was a 3rd Team All-Horizon League selection while Brady and Jackson were voted to the Horizon League's All-Freshman Team. 
    Other key returners include John Egbuta, Armon Jarrard and Amhad Jarrard.  

    NO FRESHIES
    IUPUI was responsible for nine Horizon League Freshman of the Week Awards a season ago as Vincent Brady II (4x), DJ Jackson (3x) and Armon Jarrard (2x) had a stranglehold on the award. However, this season, it was be a complete stunner if an IUPUI player received the award as redshirt walk-on Braden Allen is the lone rookie on the roster. Head Coach Matt Crenshaw has no true freshmen on this year's roster and no players younger than 20 years old.