INDIANAPOLIS - The IUPUI basketball team will host Milwaukee (15-14, 10-8 HL) in its home finale on Wednesday (Feb. 28) at 7:00 p.m. inside Indiana Farmers Coliseum. Wednesday's game is being dubbed BLACKOUT NIGHT presented by IUPUI Africana Studies and Black & Minority Owned Business Night as selected Central Indiana businesses will be highlighted throughout the evening. Fans are encouraged to wear black to Wednesday's game. 

IUPUI is coming off a hard fought 80-64 road loss at Northern Kentucky, despite playing without lead guard Bryce Monroe. The Jaguars led for much of the first half, but hit a cold spell late in the half as NKU built a 44-30 halftime lead. The Jaguars cut the lead back to two with 11:29 remaining, but never got fully over the hump as the Norse rebuilt the lead down the stretch. Jlynn Counter finished with 16 points, seven assists and four steals and Vincent Brady II had 15 points and six rebounds. Senior John Egbuta rounded out IUPUI's double-digit scorers with 11 points. 

Milwaukee won the earlier matchup between the two schools 87-67 on Feb. 4, blitzing the Jaguars in the second half after a tight first half. Monroe led IUPUI with 18 points and Abdou Samb closed with 12 points and six rebounds. Qwanzi Samuels contributed 10 points and six rebounds off the bench as the Jaguars played without Counter. 

SCOUTING MILWAUKEE
Milwaukee is 15-14 overall and 10-8 in Horizon League play. The Panthers have won three of their past four, including a 96-88 win over Purdue Fort Wayne on Sunday. BJ Freeman leads three Panthers in double-digits at 20.1 points, 6.3 rebounds and 4.4 assists per game while Erik Pratt checks in at 12.5 points per game. Kentrell Pullian averages 10.7 points and 5.2 rebounds per game as Milwaukee outrebounds foes by 1.8 rebounds per game. 

INSIDE THE SERIES
IUPUI is 6-16 all-time against Milwaukee, having dropped the last seven meetings in the series. IUPUI is 4-5 in the nine meetings in Indy and 4-11 as conference foes. Milwaukee won the meeting earlier this season, 87-67, in Milwaukee. 

UP NEXT
IUPUI will travel to Cleveland State to face the Vikings on Saturday (Mar. 2) at 6:00 p.m. on ESPN+. 

Notes and Tidbits (click here to download the full IUPUI Game Notes)
    PLANTING SEEDS
    IUPUI will be either the No. 10 or No. 11 seed in the upcoming Barbasol Horizon League Tournament and will head on the road for the opening round. If the season ended today, IUPUI would trek to No. 7 Cleveland State for an opening round game on Tuesday, Mar. 2. 

    NOMINATION SEASON
    It's officially postseason award nomination season and three Jaguars are up for Horizon League postseason accolades. Junior Jlynn Counter is on the all-league ballot while sophomore guard Vincent Brady II is up for the league's All-Defensive Team. In addition, senior Yves Nkomba is the Jaguars' nominee for the league's first-ever Sportsmanship Award. 

    NKU LEFTOVERS
    IUPUI fell at NKU on Sunday 80-64, marking a ninth straight loss... IUPUI played without senior guard Bryce Monroe, pressing starting guards Vincent Brady II and Jlynn Counter into 37+ minutes each... Brady finished with 15 points (6-12 FG, 2-5 3's, 1-2 FT) and six rebounds and Counter closed with 16 points (4-12 FG, 1-3 3's, 7-9 FT), seven assists and four steals... Counter matched his season-high with seven assists and four steals... the Jaguars matched their season-high with five blocked shots with Qwanzi Samuels and DJ Jackson blocking two each. 

    JLYNN COUNTS
    Junior Jlynn Counter ranks among the Horizon League's top-15 in six statistical categories - steals (t-6th, 1.5 spg), assists (t-10th, 3.0 apg), assist-to-turnover ratio (11th; 1.00 a/to), free throw percentage (12th, 76.9%), scoring (14th, 14.4 ppg) and field goal percentage (15th, 45.3%).
    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 had a 23-point showing against Robert Morris, matching his season-high and most by a Jaguar this season. The Oklahoma City-native tallied his 500th career point against Elon on Nov. 17 and enters today with 825 career points. 
    ...He's scored in double-digits 41 times in 57 career games
    ...He's hit for 20-or-more points 14 times in 56 career games

    BIG. ROAD. DUB. 
    IUPUI earned its best win of the season at Purdue Fort Wayne on Jan. 17, 85-79. The Jaguars had their best offensive game of the season, shooting a season-high 59.3 percent from the floor. The Jaguars scored a season-high 58 points in the paint, including making 18-of-22 (82 percent) shot at or near the rim. 
    Here are some other notes from that win: 
    -It marked just the second home loss for Purdue Fort Wayne this season
    -It was the first time all season IUPUI had five players score in double-digits
    -IUPUI had a season-high six dunks (Samb 4, Samuels 2); Samb had four dunks all season long before finishing four in that contest
    -IUPUI's five three-point attempts were the team's fewest since also attempting four against Denver on Feb. 14, 2015

    HOT QWANZ
    Since the calendar turned to 2024, forward Qwanzi Samuels is a combined 37-of-65 from the field and is now shooting 49.6 percent from the floor this season. His field goal percentage has climbed from 41.6 percent to 49.6 percent since Jan. 1. 

    THAT'LL DOU    
    Sophomore Abdou Samb had his best offensive output of the season, scoring a season-high 13 points (6-10 FG) at Purdue Fort Wayne, including four dunks. 
    In 17 games in the IUPUI starting lineup (3-14 overall), Samb is averaging 6.9 points and 3.6 rebounds, going 50-of-79 from the field (63.3 percent). 
    Samb's field goal percentage has risen from 55.5 percent to 61.3 percent since he moved into the starting five.

    #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 one IUPUI player (Qwanzi Samuels) has appeared in all 29 games so far this season as the other 14 players have missed at least one game due to injury or illness. Only two others have played in 28 games - Vincent Brady II and DJ Jackson. Everyone else has missed at least two games this campaign. 

    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. 

    FOR STARTERS
    With the glut of injuries and sickness, head coach Matt Crenshaw has found himself shuffling his starting lineup, using 11 different combinations this season. 
    No IUPUI player has started every game (Monroe leads the team with 26 starts) and 10 different players have started at least seven games. Counter is second on the team with 23 starts.  

    NINE MAN ROTATION
    Nine different Jaguars are playing at least 11 minutes per game, led by Bryce Monroe (30.5 mpg) down to Cooper Dewitt (11.3 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
    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.