INDIANAPOLIS - The IUPUI basketball program will honor its seven seniors this weekend as the Jaguars host Senior Day against Purdue Fort Wayne inside Indiana Farmers Coliseum on Saturday (Feb. 10) at noon. IUPUI (6-19, 2-12 HL) will recognize the group of Cooper Dewitt, John Egbuta, Daylan Hamilton, Bryce Monroe, Yves Nkomba, Derek Petersen and Qwanzi Samuels prior to tip-off on Saturday. 

On the floor, the Jaguars are seeking a much needed win after a tough two-game trip to Wisconsin last week. The Jaguars dropped the first leg of the trip to league leading Green Bay on Thursday and followed up with an 87-67 defeat to Milwaukee on Sunday (Feb. 4). Monroe paced three Jaguars in double-digits in that contest with 18 points and sophomore Abdou Samb added 12 points. Samuels hit for double-figures for just the second time this season, tallying 10 points off the Jaguars' bench. 

IUPUI enters Saturday's game seeking a regular season series sweep of the Mastodons, having won at Purdue Fort Wayne on Jan. 17, 85-79. Counter led five Jaguars in double-digits with 18 points and DJ Jackson came off the bench with 17 points. Samb tallied a career-high 13 points in that win as IUPUI shot 59.3 percent from the floor while attempting just five treys, making three. 

QUOTABLE
"(We're) optimistic - feeling good. Honestly, the guys are upbeat, positive and kind of collectively coming together," head coach Matt Crenshaw said during Monday's IUPUI Coaches Show. "When you have transfers, you have new pieces, you have pieces who have been out, it just takes a minute for everybody to gel and truly understand their role."

SCOUTING PURDUE FORT WAYNE
Purdue Fort Wayne is 15-9 overall and 6-7 in Horizon League play this season. The Mastodons shoot better than 35 percent from three-point range while making 9.3 treys per game and outscored their opponents by nearly 10 points per contest. Jalen Jackson leads four Purdue Fort Wayne players averaging double-digits at 15.8 points per game and Rasheed Bello averaged 15.5 points per game. Quinton Morton-Robertson (13.1 ppg, 68 3's) and Anthony Roberts (12.9 ppg) also average double-digits. 

INSIDE THE SERIES
IUPUI is 33-21 all-time against Purdue Fort Wayne and 20-6 in 26 meetings in Indianapolis. 

UP NEXT
IUPUI will hit the road to take on Detroit Mercy on Wednesday, Feb. 14 at 7:00 p.m. inside UDM's Calihan Hall. 

Notes and Tidbits (click here to download the full IUPUI Game Notes)
    SEVEN SENIORS
    IUPUI will be honoring seven seniors prior to Saturday's game - Cooper Dewitt, John Egbuta, Daylan Hamilton, Bryce Monroe, Yves Nkomba, Derek Petersen and Qwanzi Samuels.
    Collectively, the group enters play having made 233 appearances for the Jaguars, totaling 950 points, 459 rebounds and 149 assists among them. Each are on track to graduate later this year. 
    Below are the category leaders among the group of seven individuals. 
    GP: Egbuta (50), Dewitt (49), Monroe (28), Samuels (25), Hamilton (23)
    GS: Monroe (26), Dewitt (21), Egbuta (13), Nkomba (11), Samuels (8)
    PTS: Monroe (315), Egbuta (291), Samuels (128), Hamilton (124), Dewitt (54)
    REB: Egbuta (146), Samuels (137), Dewitt (53), Monroe (52), Hamilton (40)
    AST: Monroe (74), Hamilton (21), Egbuta/Samuels (17), Dewitt (16)

    MILWAUKEE TIDBITS
    IUPUI suffered an 87-67 loss at Milwaukee to cap last week's two-game trip to Wisconsin... senior Bryce Monroe had a team-high 18 points (5-18, FG, 8-12 FT) and played all 40 minutes as the first Jaguar to play a full 40 minutes this season... grad transfer Qwanzi Samuels had his second double-digit scoring game of the season with 10 points (3-5 FG, 4-5 FT) off the bench... Milwaukee knocked in 8-of-16 from deep, becoming the third IUPUI opponent in the past five games to shoot 50 percent from beyond the arc against the Jags... IUPUI matched its season-high with five blocked shots (all in the first half), including two from Abdou Samb... Samb has now blocked at least one shot in six straight games... IUPUI played both games of the trip without top scorer Jlynn Counter, who suffered an injury late in the Jan. 28 game with Wright State.  

    JLYNN COUNTS
    Junior Jlynn Counter ranks among the Horizon League's top-15 in four statistical categories - field goal percentage (10th, 47.5%), free throw percentage (13th, 77.0%), scoring (12th, 15.1 ppg) and assists (t-13th, 2.7 apg). In league play, Counter is second in the league in free throw shooting (88.4%) and also ranks in the top-15 in assists, steals and field goal percentage. 
    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 recent 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 785 career points. 
    ...He's scored in double-digits 39 times in 53 career games
    ...He's hit for 20-or-more points 14 times in 53 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 the 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
    The past 10 games, forward Qwanzi Samuels is a combined 30-of-45 from the field and is now shooting 52.0 percent from the floor this season. 
    His field goal percentage has climbed from 41.6 percent to 52.4 percent during that span. 

    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 13 games in the IUPUI starting lineup (3-10 overall), Samb is averaging 6.9 points and 3.9 rebounds, going 37-of-59 from the field (62.7 percent).  He's blocked 11 shots in his 13 starts, including three games with a pair of rejections. 
    Samb's field goal percentage has risen from 55.5 percent to 60.5 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 25 games so far this season as the other 14 players have missed at least one game due to injury or illness. Only three others have played in 23 games - Bryce Monroe, 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 10 different combinations this season. 
    No IUPUI player has started every game (Monroe leads the team with 23 starts) and 10 different players have started at least four games. No other Jaguar besides Monroe has started 20 games this season. 

    NINE MAN ROTATION
    Nine different Jaguars are playing at least 11 minutes per game, led by Bryce Monroe (30.6 mpg) down to Cooper Dewitt (11.7 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.