MUNCIE, Ind. - The IUPUI basketball team got a much needed, hard fought, come-from-behind win as the Jaguars rallied past Ball State inside Worthen Arena on Saturday (Dec. 3), picking off the Cardinals 73-62. Senior Darell Combs scored 17 of his game-high 21 points in the second half and classmate Matt O'Leary finished with 20 as the Jags overcame an 11-point second half deficit to snap a three-game skid. 

Sophomore Evan Hall added a season-high 14 in the win while Francis Kiapway led four Ball State (4-4) players in double-figures with 14. 

"This is a big win for our guys," Head Coach Jason Gardner said. "We were kind of flying around in the second half and did a better job on them defensively. (Ball State) is a really good team and I've got a lot of respect for Coach Whitford and his program. 

"We needed this one and I thought our guys did a good job of staying with it, sticking with the game plan and what we do and taking them out of what they do."

IUPUI (3-5) was down 11 with 16:04 left when sophomore center Trey Moses put back a teammate's miss, making it 50-39. However, you could feel momentum slowly sliding to the Jaguars' favor as fouls piled up on BSU big men and Combs continued to fire daggers from beyond the arc. IUPUI used a 15-3 run to turn a 53-43 Ball State lead into a 58-56 lead with 7:16 left. Hall energized the run with a two-handed dunk and Combs capped it with back-to-back treys. 

Moses tied the game at 58 all with 6:33 to play, but the Jags scored the game's next five points and closed by outscoring the hosts 15-4 over the final six-plus minutes. BSU was clinging to life when Tayler Persons knocked in a pull-up jumper with 1:31 to play, but the Jags answered by O'Leary hitting Hall with a gorgeous diagonal feed, resulting in a two-handed jam. 

"I thought we were unselfish with the basketball and that resulted in us getting some good looks," Gardner said. "We were constantly looking to make the next pass and find the open man."

The Jaguars' unsung hero in the win was sophomore D.J. McCall, who came off the bench to grab a career-high 13 rebounds and to draw the assignment of defending Persons. He limited BSU's leading scorer to 12 points on 5-of-12 shooting. The Fort Wayne-native also had a key steal near midcourt with 2:39 left, leading to a pair of free throw makes after being fouled in transition. 

"I thought (McCall) was the difference in the game today, especially in the second half," Gardner said. "He brought us a lot of energy and toughness and just dug in and did the dirty work that we needed to win. Sometimes you have to have guys step up like that in order to be successful."

He, Kellon Thomas and Aaron Brennan each finished with six points to account for all of the Jaguars' offense. After being outrebounded and outshot in the first half, IUPUI rallied to finish dead even at 38 all on the glass. IUPUI also made 45 percent from the floor while harassing the Cardinals into a 41 percent shooting effort. Ball State made just 11-of-33 (33.3 percent) second half attempts and just 3-of-13 from beyond the arc after the break. 

O'Leary was the story in an otherwise dismal the first half, scoring from seemingly every angle while his teammates struggled to find the range. At one point, the 6-foot-8 Terre Haute-native scored 12 points in just more than a three minute stretch, including a pair of long threes. He finished the game just two points shy of tying his career-high and scored in double-digits for a seventh straight time. 

"He's been playing at a really high level lately," Gardner said. "We've been telling him to be more aggressive and to look for his shot and good things will happen. He doesn't force it and he's a good passer, so he's a really tough check in that regard."

IUPUI will continue the rugged six-game road stretch on Tuesday night (Dec. 6) when the Jaguars face Illinois at 7:00 p.m. Central (8 p.m. Eastern). That game will be broadcast on ESPN3 and the iHeartRadio app as Morgan Adcock (pxp) is on the call from courtside. It will mark the second of three games against Big Ten foes this season as the Jaguars dropped a contest at Michigan as part of the 2K Classic earlier this season.