MUNCIE, Ind. - Down 10 with under five minutes to go, the IUPUI basketball team went on a late charge behind junior Darell Combs, but ultimately fell short on the road to Ball State, 61-58. Combs finished with a game-high 22 points on 8-of-12 shooting and classmate Matt O'Leary added 10 points and five boards in the loss.

Francis Kiapway led three Ball State (6-2) players in double-digits with 13 points and Ryan Weber chimed in with 12 on 4-of-5 shooting from three-point range. Freshman Trey Moses added 10 points, five boards and four blocked shots off the BSU bench.

Ball State blasted out of the gates behind Weber as the Youngstown State-transfer hit three threes in the game's first six minutes, helping the Cards build a 16-5 lead. After a timeout, IUPUI (2-6) settled down but was relegated to playing catch-up for the remainder of the first half. IUPUI closed within one before the half on three different occasions, but was never able to overtake the Cards before trailing 31-28 at the break.

The second half began much the way the first did as Ball State bombed away from three, building a 40-31 lead on connections from Weber and a pair from Kiapway.

Even after IUPUI cut the lead back to four near the midpoint of the second half on an Aaron Brennan jumper, Ball State appeared to have the outcome in hand after a Jeremie Tyler steal led to a Bo Calhoun bucket, putting the hosts ahead 52-42 with 5:13 left. However, IUPUI's backcourt of Combs and Jordan Pickett had other ideas.

Pickett buried his lone bucket of the night with 4:45 to play when he swished a corner three off a feed from Evan Hall. Later, it was a Hall layup that made it 54-47 with 2:37 left, but he missed the ensuing free throw of the and-1 opportunity. After a defensive stop that came courtesy of two Moses missed free throws, Combs answered with a long jumper to cut the lead back to five. The Jags got another stop, thanks again to a missed free throw and Combs capitalized by swishing a trey with 1:41 left. Moses and Combs traded layups on the next two trips as Ball State continued to maintain a two-point lead.

The Jaguars had a chance to tie the score with under a minute, but Marcellus Barksdale misfired on a contested drive with 33 seconds remaining, giving possession back to the Cardinals. Kiapway managed to split a pair of free throws with 30.5 seconds left, but Combs answered with a hard drive from the left side to cut the lead back to one with 20 seconds left. After two made Kiapway made two foul shots, the Ball State defense clamped down on the three-point line and eventually fouled Combs on a drive with 3.1 seconds to play. Combs made both ends of a 1-and-1 and immediately fouled on the inbounds with 2.3 seconds left. After Kiapway made his his fourth and fifth foul shots in the closing minute, Mason Archie missed a desperation three from just inside midcourt as the horn sounded.

"We've been in a lot of games, we just need to figure out how to win them. I'm not disappointed in the effort. The guys are scrapping and fighting and playing hard every time out," IUPUI Head Coach Jason Gardner said. "We made some mental toughness mistakes that cost us. Missed free throws, turnovers, turnovers in transition and missed assignments got us tonight. You can't go 3-for-10 at the free throw line and win close games."

IUPUI went 0-for-5 in the first half and finished 3-of-10 at the stripe, offsetting a strong night on the glass as the Jaguars outrebounded the Cardinals 42-35 and grabbed 15 offensive rebounds.

"I thought our bigs did a nice job of getting us more possessions. Those second and third shot opportunities can be killers. I thought we did well to limit their second shots and were able to get some second and third looks," Gardner said.

Barksdale and Muncie-native Nick Osborne grabbed a team-high seven boards each while all nine Jaguars collected at least two boards. Osborne finished with eight points on 4-of-6 shooting in his return to his hometown, including a flurry near the end of the first half when he sandwiched three made field goals around an assist to O'Leary for an easy bucket. Archie added seven points and four boards in his first game coming off the bench this season.

IUPUI got off to a slow start shooting the basketball and finished at 38.7 percent while Ball State ended at 43 percent. Ball State accounted for many of the Jaguar misses, blocking a season-high 10 shots on the interior. The Cardinals made 8-of-20 from three in the win.

The Jaguars will return home to host Miami (Ohio) on Saturday at 1:00 p.m. inside Indiana Farmers Coliseum for a Star Wars-themed contest. That game will be broadcast on HTSN and ESPN3 as Greg Rakestraw (pxp) and Hall of Famer Bob Lovell (analyst) will be on the call. It will also be heard on 107.5 FM as Morgan Adcock (pxp) will call the game from courtside with pregame coverage beginning at approximately 12:45.