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PULLMAN, Wash. - It was Ron Patterson and little else as the IUPUI basketball team was dealt a fifth straight loss at Washington State on Saturday night (Dec. 16), 72-59. Patterson matched his career-high with 19 points and six boards, but was outgunned by four WSU players in double-digits. Malichi Flynn led the victors with 17 points on 5-of-11 shooting and Viont'e Daniels closed with 15 points. 

Jeff Pollard added 12 off the Washington State (7-3) bench and Robert Franks contributed 10 points and eight boards.  

IUPUI (2-7) got off to a rough shooting start, opening 1-of-10 before freshman Jaylen Minnett canned a baseline jumper to make it 8-4 at the 14:08 mark of the first half.  Washington State pushed out to a 22-12 lead with 6:48 left before halftime before Patterson caught fire late in the stanza. 

The Jaguars' leader in threes made connected three times in 43 seconds after IUPUI had missed its initial 10 three-point attempts of the game. An Aaron Brennan layup at the 5:08 mark capped an 11-2 run but the Jags were unable to take the lead, trailing 24-23 at that point. The host Cougars ultimately led 36-30 at the break.

WSU delivered a knockout blow early in the second half as the Cougars used a 9-0 burst to turn a 39-35 advantage into a 13-point lead. The lead grew as high as 19 and the Cougars led by double-digits for the final 16-plus minutes of the contest. 

Washington State, which ranked among the nation's elite in threes made, hit 8-of-20 (40 percent) from deep and 54.9 percent from the floor for the game. IUPUI closed at 33.8 percent and just 10-of-31 (32.3 percent) from three-point range. Patterson hit 5-of-13 three-point attempts and T.J. Henderson hit a pair of treys of the bench. 

Redshirt freshman Elyjah Goss provided some first half pop off the bench, scoring all nine of his points before the break, which included swishing a three and hammering home a dunk off a Henderson assist. Henderson also closed with nine points and Brennan chipped in six. 

"It comes down to us making shots and being more consistent on the offensive end," head coach Jason Gardner said. "Tonight it was Buss and at Purdue it was [Maurice] Kirby and some nights it's been AB or D.J. or T.J. We need to get to the point where we get everyone going on the same night and then I think we'll really have something. 

"We did a good job of getting stops early in the game, but we didn't convert at the other end and capitalize on our opportunities. We could've been up by four or six or eight, but instead, we're still playing from behind because we missed so many shots early. Buss was able to get us back in it, but ideally, those threes would've pushed us out to a lead, as opposed to us playing catch-up."

WSU was the fifth straight IUPUI opponent to shoot better than 53 percent from the floor and the Jags were held under 40 percent for the third time in five games. 

IUPUI will conclude the two-game trip at No. 12/13 Gonzaga on Monday night at 6:00 p.m. PT (9:00 Eastern).