IU Indy Athletics

RICHMOND, Ky. - The IUPUI basketball team found out the hard way not to mess with Colonels on Veteran's Day. The Jaguars opened the 2016-17 season with a 97-87 loss at Eastern Kentucky on Friday night (Nov. 11) in a game that started like a track meet and disintegrated into a free throw shooting contest. Ultimately, the hosts fended off the Jags down the stretch en route to the win.

Senior Darell Combs led all players with 28 points and both Ron Patterson and Kellon Thomas finished with 11 each in their IUPUI debuts. Sophomore T.J. Henderson rounded out four Jaguars in double-digits with 10 points in the loss. EKU (1-0) Sophomore Nick Mayo paced five Colonels in double-digits with 24 points, including hitting 12-of-12 at the foul line. Freshman Asante Gist added 21 points in his collegiate debut, including knocking in 16-of-22 free throw attempts.

Collectively, EKU scored 45 points at the free throw line in a game that resembled a Veteran's Day hand-to-hand combat exhibition as the two sides combined on 65 personal fouls. EKU scored their final 18 points from the foul line, spanning nearly five minutes. 

"It's going to take us some time to come together," IUPUI Head Coach Jason Gardner said. "We got in a hole against a team that shoots it from long-range and has a pretty good post scorer and that was a hard hole to come out of. I thought we did a better job in the second half of extending our defense and identifying shooters, but it's hard to win on the road when you get behind like that. 

"It doesn't get any easier as we have a long bus ride and have to face a Big Ten opponent on Sunday. It'll be interesting to see how we come out up there in a tough road environment."

The Jags appeared shell shocked in the open as EKU dropped in four treys in the initial four minutes to build a 14-9 lead. The lead grew to 15 just before halftime when Isaac McGlone completed a three-point play and the Colonels ultimately led 42-28 at the break. 

The second half saw EKU's lead get to 24, ironically on a pair of free throws at the 14:06 mark, before the Jags made a late run to close the final margin. Redshirt sophomore D.J. McCall sparked a quick 6-0 run, including picking off a pass near midcourt and racing the other way to feed Henderson for a transition bucket with just more than 10 minutes left. However, IUPUI got no closer than eight in the closing minutes as EKU repeatedly marched to the line and connected on freebies. 

EKU made 45-of-56 (80.4 percent) free throws while IUPUI hit 20-of-27 (74.1 percent) attempts. 

"The game really had no flow because of all the fouls and all the free throws," Gardner said. "It's hard to get a good rhythm when every other possession ends in free throws. I know that'll change over the course of the year, but that's not a whole lot of fun for anyone."

Combs scored 22 of his game-high 28 points after halftime and went over 20 points for the tenth time in his IUPUI career. Sophomore Evan Hall grabbed a career-high 10 boards in a return to his home state but was held at bay by EKU's interior defense. Patterson did the bulk of his damage from long range, hitting 3-of-6 from deep as IUPUI made nine triples. 

The loss dropped IUPUI to 1-3 all-time against EKU and 1-2 in season openers under Gardner. 

The Jags will return to action on Sunday (Nov. 13) when they face Michigan at 12:00 p.m. in a nationally televised game on ESPNU. That game will also be heard in Central Indiana on Fox Sports 97.5 FM and 1260 WNDE as Morgan Adcock (pxp) is on the call. His call of the game will also be heard on the iHeartRadio app.