Box Score I Box Score (.pdf) I Stephen Thomas Postgame

MUNCIE, Ind. - Ball State senior forward Jarrod Jones scored a career-high 27 points and IUPUI missed three different opportunities to tie the score or take the lead in the final two minutes as the Jaguars dropped a 69-62 contest inside Worthen Arena on Wednesday (Nov. 23) night. Senior Stephen Thomas led two Jaguars in double-digits with a season-high 18 points and six assists and freshman Marcellus Barksdale scored 12 off the bench in the loss.

IUPUI (1-4) was down by eight with 4:20 to play after BSU (1-2) senior guard Randy Davis hit a contested three from the top of the key, making the score 58-50. However, the Jags continued to ride some second half confidence, largely behind Thomas. First, the Cathedral-product answered Randy Davis's three with a step-back triple of his own from the left wing, making it 58-53. Later it was a layup by Barksdale that made it 59-55 with under four to play and Alex Young got the Jags within three with a three-point play with 2:04 to go.

Down 64-62 with 1:22 left after a Thomas pull-up, the Jags got a quick defensive stop when Davis walked after catching the inbounds pass in front of the IUPUI bench. However, the Jaguars went empty on the trip as Young missed on a drive and Ian Chiles missed an open three after Christian Siakam had kicked out the offensive rebound. After a wild chase for the rebound, junior Sean Esposito was called for an over-the-back foul, eventually leading to a made BSU free throw at the other end.

Still a one-possession game, Young came up empty on another drive and Davis secured the board before icing the game at the line. Davis finished with 13 points and nine assists in 33 minutes.

"He's a good player," Thomas said of Davis. "He's really crafty and really shifty.

"I tried to get a feel for the game and choose my spots to make plays and those happened to come down late in the game."

Young once again struggled from the field, closing with just nine points on 3-of-15 shooting and 0-of-6 from three. After being held under double-digits just once as a junior, the 6-foot-6 lefty has been held under 10 points twice in the first five games of his senior season. Thomas helped pick up the slack, hitting 6-of-12 field goal attempts including 4-of-7 from deep and finishing one point shy of tying his career-high in the scoring column. Collectively IUPUI shot 42 percent overall while BSU hit 46 percent and outrebounded the Jags 38-27.

IUPUI started slow, falling down by seven before the game's second media timeout. A litany of missed shots led to the slow start, while Jones dominated the game inside.

"We're getting off to slow starts and we battled back and that's definitely a reassuring thing," Thomas said. "I feel like we're a couple of possessions away from winning these games and that's what's been so frustrating for us.

"We're a young team - we'll get it together."

IUPUI whittled the lead down to 29-23 with 2:57 left before halftime when freshman Lyonell Gaines scored in transition off a feed from Thomas, but the rookie couldn't convert the traditional three-point play opportunity coming out of the timeout. From there, BSU closed the first half on a flurry, outscoring the Jaguars 8-2 the rest of the way to take a 37-25 halftime lead. However, bad could've been much worse as Jauwan Scaife swished a three from the left wing with 6.6 seconds left before intermission. IUPUI threw the ball away from there, giving the Cards the ball back with 1.8 seconds left. On the ensuing quick fire, Scaife bricked a three from the same spot at the final horn.

Davis and Jones sliced and diced through the Jaguars' defense in the first half, with the former handing out seven of his nine assists in the first half and the latter scoring 13 before the break on 5-of-7 shooting. At the other end, IUPUI played the final 6:46 of the first half with Young on the bench. Young picked up an offensive foul with just under seven minutes left and Howard benched him, sensing that his star player was losing his composure.

Young didn't return until 16:28 remaining in the game, having scored just two points at that juncture.

Siakam closed with eight points and 10 boards for the Jaguars and Gaines added eight points in his first career start. Chiles scored seven and played virtually the entire game in the backcourt in his first career start. Scaife tallied 15 off the bench for the Cards, including capping a stretch that seemingly epitomized the five-game start for the Jags.

At one end, Young knifed through two defenders before banking a shot off the glass before being whistled for an offensive foul, negating a basket that would've cut the lead to five. On BSU's next trip, IUPUI's played energetic at the defensive end forcing the Cards to wilt away the shot clock, but Scaife made the best of the bad situation by banking in a long three with the final seconds ticking away.

Scaife finished 4-of-6 from three as BSU collectively shot 46.2 percent (6-of-13) from deep.

The loss was IUPUI's fourth-in-a-row since the season-opening win over Anderson. The four-game slide marks the program's longest since a five-game losing skid in January 2009. IUPUI dropped to 0-6 all-time against BSU with the Jaguars' lone win later vacated by the NCAA. The two schools will meet again later this season at Conseco Fieldhouse on Dec. 19.

IUPUI will return to action after the Thanksgiving holiday when it hosts Texas Southern on Saturday (Nov. 26) as the final game of the Auto-Owners Insurance Spartan Classic inside The Jungle. That contest is slated to tip at 7:00 p.m. and can be heard on WNDE 1260 as Scott McCauley (pxp) calls the contest from courtside. As always, IUPUI students will be admitted for free with a valid JagTag, while adult tickets are just $10. Children 12-and-under are admitted for $7 and kids 4-and-under are free.