INDIANAPOLIS - The IU Indianapolis men's basketball team was unable to keep pace with a hot shooting Purdue Fort Wayne squad on Saturday (Jan. 25) inside the Jungle as the visiting Mastodons escaped with a 91-80 win. IU Indy wore throwback uniforms to pay homage to the 1984-85 NAIA District 21 Championship team that earned the program's first-ever NAIA National Tournament berth. 

At halftime, roughly 40 basketball alumni gathered on the floor and Hall of Famer Bob Lovell was presented with a retro Metros jersey, commemorating the 1985 team. 

Paul Zilinskas paced four Jaguars in double-digits with 23 points and Jarvis Walker added 14. Freshman DeSean Goode finished with a double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds and Sean Craig closed with 10 points and six rebounds. However, Purdue Fort Wayne's Jalen Jackson was the story of the game as he finished with 38 points, seven rebounds and six assists, while hitting 14-of-18 free throw attempts. 

"We're a tough team that's going to fight. I think we can compete and beat anybody in the league," head coach Paul Corsaro said. "I think we're playing really good basketball. We keep getting better and better. I'm proud of our efforts, I'm upset with the loss but it's on to the next game.

"We had four double-figure scorers and we had some guys who I thought had very poor first halves who stepped up in the second half after I kind of challenged them at halftime and brought us back in the game."

While the first half was largely a three-point shooting contest while the second half could've been played in an octagon as the two sides bullied one another in what led to a glut of free throws at both ends. 

The first half saw the lead change times 10 times, the last of which came on a Chandler Cuthrell dunk at the 11:37 mark that sparked a 13-2 Mastodon run. The Jags withstood the run and fired back with five straight points from Zilinskas in a 19-second span. The Jags closed within three at 36-33 before Purdue Fort Wayne closed the half outscoring the Jaguars 14-2 to take a 50-35 advantage. 

The guests pushed the lead out as large as 18 in the second half before the Jaguars whittled it away down the stretch. A Zilinskas trey made it a nine-point game with 5:28 to play, but Jackson followed up a Rasheed Bello miss with a layup to regain a double-digit lead. Goode cut it back to nine again with a putback, but the Jags struggled to get stops when they needed them. 

Purdue Fort Wayne (15-7, 8-3 HL) shot 57 percent from the floor and 10-of-22 (45.5 percent) from three while the Jaguars closed at 37 percent overall and 28.1 percent from deep. The Jaguars won the boards by a hefty 40-29 margin while the turnover battle was largely even. 

However, Jackson repeatedly answered IU Indy scores throughout the game. 

"It was the last four minutes of the first half that really was the difference and Jalen Jackson was the difference. He's my vote for (Horizon League) Player of the Year in the league if it were today. He's a great player and a great kid too. And it wasn't just the points, he also had seven rebounds and six assists and I thought he played great defense," Corsaro said. 

Both Keenan Garner and Timaris Brown came off the Jaguars bench to contribute six points and five rebounds apiece and Alec Millender added nine points from the lead guard position. 

The Jaguars will return to action this week when they face Robert Morris on Thursday (Jan. 30) at 7:00 p.m. on ESPN+.