OMAHA, Neb. - IUPUI had a late comeback thwarted on the road as the Jaguars dropped a 76-71 contest at Omaha on Sunday night (Jan. 3). The Jaguars were down 11 late in the game, but rallied to make it a one-possession game before ultimately falling to the Mavs by five. Senior Marcellus Barksdale led five Jaguars in double-digits with a season-high 16 points on 7-of-10 shooting and Matt O'Leary scored 11, all in the first half. Mason Archie, Jordan Pickett and Nick Osborne all finished with 10 points each and IUPUI's top scorer, Darell Combs, tallied eight, all in the final 3:38 of the game.

Devin Patterson led all scorers with 24 points on 9-of-14 shooting and Tre'Shawn Thurman contributed 21 points and eight boards for Omaha (10-6, 2-0 Summit).

"We were right there where we needed to be, but just didn't capitalize on all of our opportunities," IUPUI Head Coach Jason Gardner said. "We had a long stretch where we didn't score and never completely came out of that hole. I liked our fight and there were probably more positives than negatives to come from this. It's hard to win on the road and we're just looking forward to getting home and hosting games now.

"We got a split (on this trip) and now we have to take care of our home floor."

IUPUI (5-12, 1-1 Summit) was all but dead, trailing 60-49 with 6:21 left after going more than four minutes without a score. However, Barksdale single-handedly sparked a rally, scoring six points in succession, the last two coming on a steal and transition finish with just over five minutes left. Omaha regained traction on an Kyler Erickson three, but IUPUI would again claw back in contention and have a chance to knot the score late.

The Jags were down seven with 95 seconds left, but crept within five on a Combs jumper and then got a quick stop when Tra-Deon Hollins missed a wild runner in the lane. The Jaguars again capitalized as Combs swished a pair of free throws with 52.2 seconds left, cutting the lead to three. After collecting a steal with a full-court press, IUPUI had the ball with a chance to pull even with 40 seconds left. However, four missed shot attempts, all heavily contested from in close, resulted in an empty trip. Omaha proceeded to make 6-of-8 foul shots in the final 35 seconds to ice the win.

IUPUI got off to a sluggish start, falling behind 9-2 in the opening three minutes, but got an immediate lift from Osborne off the bench to regroup and take an 18-15 lead. The first half featured three ties and nine lead changes before the two teams went to the break, tied at 33 all.

Omaha scored first in the second half on a Patterson trey at the 18:26 mark and led all but 18 seconds from that point forward. Freshman Evan Hall put IUPUI ahead 39-38 with 16:09 to play when he tipped in an O'Leary miss for one of his eight offensive boards. Omaha fired back with the game's next four points, but the margin stayed at four or less for the first 12 minutes of the second half. The Mavs finally got some breathing room with a 9-0 run, building the aforementioned 60-49 advantage.

Omaha shot 47.5 percent from the field while keeping IUPUI to just 44.8 percent. The Jags were ineffective from three-point range, making just 1-of-15 (6.7 percent) attempts and going 0-of-7 in the second half. IUPUI outrebounded the Mavs 37-32 and 15-10 off the offensive glass, leading to a 48-34 edge in points in the paint. Hall finished with a career-high nine rebounds and O'Leary, Barksdale and Osborne all grabbed five boards.

Barksdale and Combs also grabbed three steals each as IUPUI gathered a season-best 12 steals.

IUPUI dropped to 1-6 all-time against Omaha with the loss.

IUPUI will now return home to host South Dakota State (13-3, 2-0 Summit) at 7:00 p.m. on Thursday night (Jan. 7) at Indiana Farmers Coliseum. As part of Teacher Appreciation Night, area students and teachers can show their school ID and wear their school colors to receive a free ticket to the game. In addition, fans wearing IUPUI Jaguars apparel will receive $5 off a regularly priced ticket. Fans can also participate in the first "IMCU Three for Thursday" presented by Indiana Members Credit Union where fans purchasing a ticket in advance of gameday will receive three free tickets. Fans must contact Hannah Hutchinson at 317-278-2530 or hanhutch@iupui.edu to take advantage of the "IMCU Three for Thursday" offer.

Thursday's game will be televised on HTSN and ESPN3 as Greg Rakestraw (pxp) and Bob Lovell (analyst) call the action from courtside. In addition, the game will be heard in Central Indiana on 107.5 FM as Morgan Adcock (pxp) describes the action with pregame coverage beginning at approximately 6:45.