FORT WAYNE, Ind. - The IUPUI basketball team will step away from home for a quick one game trip on Wednesday night (Jan. 17) when the Jaguars trek to Fort Wayne to face Purdue Fort Wayne at 7:00 p.m. inside Allen County Memorial Coliseum. Wednesday's game will be broadcast on ESPN+. 

IUPUI (5-14, 1-7 HL) is looking to snap a five-game skid following Saturday's home loss to Horizon League leader Oakland University. Junior Jlynn Counter scored a team-high 17 points on 6-of-12 shooting in the loss and senior Bryce Monroe contributed 16 points in the defeat. IUPUI fell into a first half hole and never fully recovered as the Golden Grizzlies scored the game's opening 11 points before Vincent Brady II finally tallied, more than five minutes into the contest. Sophomore DJ Jackson had nine points and a team-high four assists off the bench and Brady, Qwanzi Samuels and Abdou Samb all finished with eight points. 

Oakland feasted in the frontcourt, outrebounding IUPUI 35-20 and outscoring the Jaguars 42-28 in the paint. The Jaguars shot a respectable 43.1 percent from the field and 6-of-14 (42.9 percent) from three, but allowed Oakland to shoot 54.4 percent for the game. Oakland shot 58 percent overall after halftime and finished with 13 offensive rebounds total. 

SCOUTING PURDUE FORT WAYNE
Purdue Fort Wayne checks in at 13-5 overall and 4-3 in Horizon League play. The Mastodons are 8-1 this season at home with the lone loss having come to Wright State by a 106-98 score. The Mastodons are scoring 84.7 points per game and shooting 37.4 percent from three-point range, connecting on nearly 10 treys per contest. They also turn it over just 9.9 times per game while forcing 18 opponent miscues for a +8.1 turnover margin for the season. Rasheed Bello leads four Mastodons in double-digits at 15.6 points per game while UIC-transfer Jalen Jackson is scoring 15.1 points per game. Quinton Morton-Robertson (14.2 ppg) and Anthony Roberts (13.4 ppg, 5.7 rpg) also score in double-figures and freshman Corey Hadnot II averages 7.6 points per game off the bench. 

INSIDE THE SERIES
IUPUI is 32-21 all-time against Purdue Fort Wayne, but just 12-14 in the 26 meetings in Fort Wayne. The Mastodons have won the last three meetings in the series. 

UP NEXT
IUPUI will return home to open a three-game homestand, beginning with Robert Morris on Saturday (Jan. 20) at noon. 

Notes and Tidbits (click here to download the full IUPUI Game Notes)
    BRADY BUNCH (OF NOTES)
    The past six games, sophomore Vincent Brady II is averaging 14.3 points and 5.0 rebounds per game while shooting 42 percent overall and 12-of-34 (35.3 percent) from three and 20-of-28 (71.4 percent) from the foul line. He had scored in double-digits in five straight games before being held to eight points against Oakland on Saturday.  
    At Youngstown State, Brady hit for a season-high 18 points (5-10 FG, 4-6 3's, 4-4 FT), including a season-high four treys (most by an IUPUI player this season).

    HOT QWANZ
    The past four games, forward Qwanzi Samuels is a combined 13-of-17 from the field and is now shooting 49.4 percent from the floor this season. 
    His field goal percentage has climbed from 41.6 percent to 49.4 percent over the past four games. 

    #SCTOP10
    IUPUI players were featured on ESPN's SportsCenter Top 10 Plays twice in three days on Dec. 29 and Dec. 31 with a pair of dunks. 
    Against Detroit Mercy on Dec. 29, Kidtrell Blocker's one-handed dunk from the right side was the No. 8 play on SportsCenter. 
    Two days later, Vincent Brady II's one-handed dunk from the left baseline was chosen as the No. 4 play in the country that evening. 

    ONLY THE LONELY    
    Only two Jaguars (John Egbuta and Qwanzi Samuels) have appeared in all 19 games so far this season as 13 different players have missed at least one game due to injury or illness. The most recent to have been sidelined is Kidtrell Blocker, who missed the past two games due to illness. 

    FOR STARTERS
    With the glut of injuries and sickness, head coach Matt Crenshaw has found himself shuffling his starting lineup. After relying on the starting group of Jlynn Counter, Bryce Monroe, Kidtrell Blocker, Qwanzi Samuels and Yves Nkomba to start the season (7 games, 2-5 overall), Crenshaw has tried some alternatives of late. 
    Cooper Dewitt has started 11 straight games in place of Samuels and both Vincent Brady II and DJ Jackson have recently earned seven starts. Most recently, sophomore Abdou Samb moved into the starting five, replacing Nkomba ahead of the Dec. 21 game with Defiance.

    SAMB, FOR STARTERS
    In seven games in the IUPUI starting lineup (2-5 overall), sophomore Abdou Samb is averaging 6.7 points and 3.6 rebounds, going 19-of-26 from the field (73.1 percent). 
    Samb's field goal percentage has risen from 55.5 percent to 64.2 percent since he moved into the starting five.

     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 (14.6 ppg; 9th in HL) and assists (48) while ranking second on the team in rebounding (4.3 rpg).
    Counter, a preseason Second Team All-Horizon League pick, led the team in scoring (14.5 ppg) and assists (3.3 apg) last season. 

    COUNTER COUNT
    Counter tallied his 500th career point against Elon on Nov. 17 and enters today with 715 career points. 
    ...He's scored in double-digits 35 times in 49 career games
    ...He's hit for 20-or-more points 13 times in 49 career games

    QWANZ SEES DOUBLE
    Graduate transfer Qwanzi Samuels recorded his first collegiate double-double at Minnesota (Dec. 16), having finished with a career-high 13 points (5-8 FG, 3-3 FT), 10 rebounds and four assists in 30 minutes off the Jaguars' bench. 
    It marked his first-ever double-digit scoring game (in his 96th career game) and his second career game with 10-or-more rebounds. 

    BENCH WORK
    IUPUI is averaging 24.8 points per game from its reserves this season and has gotten at least 21 bench points in 15 of 19 games (including five games of 30+). 
    Nearly 38 percent of the team's offensive production has come from reserves this season. 

    NINE MAN ROTATION
    Nine different Jaguars are playing at least 12 minutes per game, led by Jlynn Counter (29.8 mpg) down to Cooper Dewitt (12.2 mpg). 

    IN THE CLASSROOM
    Seven members of the squad topped a 3.0 grade point average for the fall semester, paced by John Egbuta (3.62) and Amhad Jarrard (3.51). Others included Vincent Brady II (3.48), Yves Nkomba (3.46), Derek Petersen (3.29), Qwanzi Samuels (3.12) and Bryce Monroe (3.00).  

    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.