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CLEVELAND, Ohio - The basketball Jaguars utilized all nine lives and then some on Thursday night (Jan. 18) and it still wasn't enough as IUPUI fell at Cleveland State, 70-67, inside the Wolstein Center in Horizon League play. The loss snapped the Jaguars' three-game winning streak and dropped IUPUI back to .500 in Horizon League play. 

Senior Aaron Brennan led IUPUI (7-12, 4-4 HL) with 17 points and five boards and Evan Hall contributed 11 points in the loss. D.J. McCall closed with seven points, seven rebounds, six assists and three steals in 31 minutes of work. Kenny Carpenter tallied 23 for Cleveland State (5-15, 2-5 HL) and Stefan Kenic chipped in 14. 

"Winning on the road is tough, especially in league play," head coach Jason Gardner said. "Tonight, we just made too many turnovers and took some bad shots and didn't get stops when we needed them. And even with all of that, we still gave ourselves a chance to win the game. 

"We didn't match their intensity early in the game and that kind of forced us to play uphill in the first half. I was proud of how the guys fought back and got in the game, but you can't dig a hole like that on the road and expect to win. Credit Cleveland State for taking care of their home floor and getting the win. Now we have to regroup and not look back at this one, but start focusing on Youngstown State instead."

IUPUI took an improbable 67-66 lead with 44.1 seconds left when Jaylen Minnett was fouled after making a three from the right wing. The true freshman completed the four-point play for his lone points of the night. On the ensuing possession, Cleveland State went back ahead when Jamarcus Hairston tipped in a missed layup with 22.6 seconds left. Without a timeout, IUPUI began running a set before Nick Rogers had his pocket picked trying to maneuver inside from the right wing. 

Cleveland State made a pair of free throws with 3.9 seconds left and Ron Patterson came up short on a long three as the final horn sounded. 

IUPUI spent the entire night emerging from big holes as the Vikings scored the game's first six points and built a quick 11-2 lead in the game's opening minutes. Cleveland State extended the lead to 17 near the midpoint of the first half before the Jags finally switched to a 2-3 zone and began stringing together defensive stops. The Jags held CSU without a point for more than five minutes before Vikings' guard Kasheem Thomas got loose for a layup on the final possession of the first half, making it 32-26 at the break. 

The Jags got all the way back on a T.J. Henderson three-point play with 13:15 left when D.J. McCall collected a steal in the backcourt and fed his streaking teammate for a bucket. IUPUI was still up a point with 11:05 remaining when Elyjah Goss dropped in a baseline layup, but Cleveland State responded with a 13-0 run to hand the Jags another double-digit deficit. 

This time, it was McCall and Nick Rogers who fueled a 14-4 run that got the Jags within two with 2:50 left. McCall scored five points during the flurry and Ron Patterson punctuated it with a fast break bucket. Tyree Appleby pushed the Cleveland State lead back to three with just under two minutes to play before Minnett gave IUPUI it's final lead of the night with his four-point play. 

IUPUI shot 43 percent overall and 6-of-23 (26.1 percent) from deep. Cleveland State connected on 47 percent overall and 5-of-18 (27.8 percent) from three. The Vikings outscored IUPUI 15-11 at the free throw line and collected 13 steals as part of 21 Jaguar turnovers. IUPUI forced Cleveland State into 22 turnovers, but converted them into just 17 points. 

IUPUI will cap the two-game trip at Youngstown State on Saturday night (Jan. 20) when the Jaguars face the Penguins at 7:00 p.m. inside the Beeghly Center. That game will be broadcast on ESPN3 and marks the first meeting between the two schools since 2001 when the programs were both part of the Mid-Continent Conference.