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FARGO, N.D. - In dire need of a win, the upset-minded IUPUI basketball team nearly pulled off a road stunner before ultimately falling short, 66-60 at North Dakota State on Thursday (Feb. 6) night. The Jags trailed by just three in the closing minute, but were unable to get a timely stop when they needed it most. 

Senior center Mitch Patton led IUPUI with 16 points and eight boards and Ja'Rob McCallum chipped in 15 points on 5-of-9 shooting from three. Lawrence Alexander led NDSU (17-6, 6-2) with 17 points on 7-of-12 shooting and Taylor Braun added 14 points and four boards. Jordan Aaberg contributed 11 points off the NDSU bench and Kory Brown added 10 points on 5-of-5 shooting and four steals. 

"This was a super college basketball game," IUPUI Head Coach Todd Howard said. "They are the most experienced and best team we've played all year. We executed, we battled and we fought on the glass. 

"(NDSU) is unreal at home and we needed a couple shots to go down. They have six guys that have played four years and we aren't anywhere near that experienced. I'm proud of our effort and pride. They're a tough team to face without your leading scorer."

NDSU improved to 8-1 at home this season and 3-0 in Summit League play. 

IUPUI (5-20, 0-8 Summit) trailed by as many as 14 in the second half, yet it was McCallum and #P.J. Hubert# who helped shoot the Jaguars back into the contest. The Jaguars fell behind 47-33 with 10:01 left when Brown got loose for a dunk, but IUPUI came back with fury, including Hubert scoring six points in a 36-second spurt. The latter four came on a four-point play when he was fouled on a 23-footer in front of his own bench.

After yielding four quick points, McCallum responded with his third three of the game to cut the lead back to eight. Later, it was his fourth trey that helped spark a final rally in the final four-plus minutes. The sweet shooting Milwaukee-transfer made it a nine-point game and freshman Justus Stanback followed with a trey to make it 59-51 with 2:12 left. The Jaguars then forced a turnover and turned it into points when Patton put back a Marcellus Barksdale miss at the 1:21 mark. 

Alexander did the Jaguars a favor by missing the front end of a one-and-one and McCallum immediately splashed a three, making it 59-56 with a minute left. Opting to play it straight up, Alexander beat McCallum off the dribble and worked free for a layup to push the lead back to five. Barksdale responded with a pair of free throws and the Jaguars fouled Braun after setting the full-court press. Braun hit both, but again, NDSU helped the Jaguars a favor by fouling Barksdale on a drive to the hole. Once again, the Jaguars' point guard hit both, making it a three-point game with 32 seconds left. 

The Jaguars fouled Braun again and The Summit League Preseason Player of the Year split the pair, making it 64-60 with 31.6 seconds left. However, Hubert misfired on a long, contested trey and Patton missed a putback, ending the Jaguars' comeback bid. Braun capped the win with an uncontested dunk in transition, marking NDSU's eighth dunk of the second half. 

North Dakota State used the eight dunks to help offset an 0-of-10 effort from three-point range. It was the first time in IUPUI's Division I era (1998-present) that the Jaguars held their opponent without a three-point field goal, a span of more than 450 games. 

The Bison finished the game hitting 51.8 percent from the floor, while holding the Jaguars to 42 percent. Of the Bison's 29 field goal, 26 came in the paint as NDSU outscored the Jaguars 52-12 in close. However, IUPUI hit 7-of-16 (43.8 percent) from deep and won the glass 32-28. 

IUPUI, which came in ranked 16th in the country in free throw shooting, was a perfect 11-of-11 on Thursday. Barksdale made all six of his attempts, while Hubert and Patton also contributed makes. Barksdale finished with eight points, five boards and four assists and Khufu Najee tallied eight points on 4-of-6 shooting. 

The Jaguars were without top scorer Ian Chiles for the fourth straight game due to injury. 

"It was a heckuva game. Credit Ja'Rob and Mitch - they were men tonight," Howard said. "Mitch had some turnovers, but he made up for them with six offensive rebounds. The guys played hard for all 40 minutes."
 
IUPUI took advantage of some cold NDSU shooting and surged out to an 11-4 lead in the game's early going. While the Bison missed six of their first seven shots, Patton scored the Jags' first five points of the game before Najee got going with his usual midrange game. However, the Jaguars went cold over the latter stages of the first half and NDSU capitalized, outscoring the Jags 20-8 over the final 11 minutes to take a 28-22 lead at the break. 

Aaberg, who came in averaging a smidge more than three points per game, scored eight of his season-high 11 points in the first half. 

IUPUI will cap the two-game road trip on Saturday (Feb. 8) when the Jaguars face South Dakota State inside Frost Arena in Brookings, S.D., at 5:00 p.m. Eastern. That game will be heard on the free iHeartRadio app as Will Flemming (pxp) calls the action from courtside.