INDIANAPOLIS - Visiting Oral Roberts found Indiana Farmers Coliseum much to their liking on Thursday night (Jan. 14), connecting on 10-of-15 three-point attempts against The Summit League's best three-point defense on way to an 80-71 victory over the Jaguars. Kris Martin scored a game-high 18 points, including hitting all four three-point attempts, and DaQuan Jeffries contributed 17 off the bench to send IUPUI to its first home loss of the 2015-16 season. 

Sophomore Jordan Pickett led four Jaguars in double-digits with 15 points and Darell Combs and Marcellus Barksdale tallied 13 apiece in the loss. 

"They were the hungrier basketball team tonight and they came in and took it to us," IUPUI Head Coach Jason Gardner said. "We didn't keep them off the offensive glass and that's where the game was won. We gave them way too many second chances and they capitalized on them. That's an effort thing and we're not good enough to not give 100 percent effort all the time.

"We had some spurts where we played well and it started at the defensive end, but it wasn't a full 40 minute effort." 

IUPUI (7-13, 3-2 Summit) had a 35-32 lead at halftime after Pickett made a trey on the Jaguars' final possession before the break, but the pendulum swung hard in ORU's (10-9, 2-3 Summit) direction thanks to the three-point line. After making 4-of-6 first half three-point attempts, the Golden Eagles opened the second half with four treys in just more than four minutes, building a 50-41 lead in the process. Martin made three during the 23-8 run that eventually pushed the lead out to 12. 

The lead was as large as 13 with 9:59 left when Jeffries stroked an open three, but the Jaguars were able to force turnovers and later creep within two possessions. Two straight Matt O'Leary steals led to three quick points as the Jags eventually got it back to 66-61 at the free throw line. However, ORU responded with the game's next five points and coasted to the finish line. The dagger came with 4:38 left when Jalen Bradley knocked down a baseline jumper, aided by an Albert Owens offensive rebound of his previous miss to push the lead back to seven.

Oral Roberts finished with a 39-25 advantage off the glass and 12-7 edge off the offensive glass, leading to a 16-9 margin in second chance points. Owens led all players with eight rebounds and Brandon Conley and Jeffries chipped in six apiece. Nick Osborne had a team-high six rebounds off the IUPUI bench. 

IUPUI sputtered out of the gates and fell into a 10-4 hole, but used its bench to rally. A 17-2 run turned the six-point hole into a nine-point lead, thanks in part to two Osborne treys. Freshman Evan Hall capped the run with a two-handed dunk off a superb O'Leary bounce pass. IUPUI was also aided by Emegano's presence on the bench after collecting two fouls in the game's opening six-plus minutes. The Golden Eagles rolled the dice and brought him back with 8:15 left before halftime and the league's top scorer responded with eight of the guests' next 11 points to make it a two-point game. Jeffries later put ORU ahead 32-30 before Pickett scored the final five points of the first half. 

Pickett and Combs were a combined 10-of-26 from the field as IUPUI shot a collective 45 percent and 6-of-20 (30 percent) from deep.

The loss dropped IUPUI to 4-1 at home this season and was the ninth straight defeat to the Golden Eagles. 

IUPUI will continue the two-game homestand on Saturday (Jan. 16) afternoon as the Jaguars welcome Denver to Indiana Farmers Coliseum. The IUPUI Hall of Fame Class of Odell Bradley, Katrina McCrory and Brittney McDuffee will be recognized at halftime of that contest and Junior Jaguar Club members will be invited on the floor afterwards for a postgame layup line. The game will be televised on HTSN and ESPN3 as Greg Rakestraw (pxp) and Hall of Famer Bob Lovell (analyst) are on the call. In addition, the game will be heard on 107.5 ESPN as Morgan Adcock (pxp) is on the call. Tickets are available by contacting the IUPUI Athletics offices or any Ticketmaster outlet.