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ROCHESTER, Mich. – The IUPUI basketball team put up a valiant effort at Horizon League preseason favorite Oakland on Sunday afternoon (Feb. 4), but ultimately fell short on the road, 82-74. Oakland (15-10, 7-5 HL) snapped a modest two-game skid while IUPUI (7-16, 4-8 HL) dropped a fifth straight game, all on the road.
 
Senior Aaron Brennan and freshman Jaylen Minnett led IUPUI with 16 points each and T.J. Henderson added 14 points, all in the second half. The Horizon League's top scorer Kendrick Nunn scored a game-high 25 points and Jalen Hayes tallied 19 of his 21 points in the first half. Hayes had an early exit, fouling out on a technical foul with 9:35 remaining.
 
IUPUI trailed by as many as 17 in the first half and was down 49-36 at the break after a lackluster start. However, the second half was a different story as the Jaguars limited the Golden Grizzlies to just 7-of-21 shooting in the second half and made it a one-possession game down the stretch.
 
Minnett pulled IUPUI within three with 6:07 to play with his fourth three of the game, but Oakland scored the game's next five points, all on Nick Daniels' free throws. The Jags rallied again and closed within 76-72 with 2:11 left on a Brennan free throw, but Oakland closed the game by scoring six of the contest's final eight points.

"I thought we showed a lot of fight today," head coach Jason Gardner said. "The energy was better. Especially in the second half, I thought we stepped in and went toe-to-toe with them. We outrebounded them, we held them to 33 percent shooting in the second half and I thought we did a good job of chasing them off the [three-point] line. 

"Our start did us again today. We let them jump on us, but then I thought we did a good job of getting back in the game. We just had that one long lull in the first half where we couldn't get a bucket though. I'm proud of our guys and I'm proud of the fight they showed. Now we get to finish with five of our next six games at home and hopefully we can get hot and defend our floor."
 
Oakland finished at 50 percent overall, despite making just 3-of-15 (20 percent) from three-point range. The Jaguars finished at just under 41 percent from the floor, but connected on 8-of-23 (34.8 percent) treys. Oakland outscored the Jaguars 25-14 at the free throw line while IUPUI won the glass, 42-36. Junior Evan Hall closed with 11 boards and Elyjah Goss had nine.
 
IUPUI was down just 21-18 after Goss got free for a two-handed dunk, but the offense went silent for the next five minutes. Oakland reeled off a 10-0 run during that stretch, fueled largely by Hayes. Gardner's squad picked it's poison in the first half, opting to allow Hayes work on the blocks while focusing on keeping Nunn and Martez Walker from exploding behind the three-point line. Hayes answered by hitting 8-of-9 first half shots to help Oakland build a 49-36 lead at the break. 
 
Oakland appeared to be in control as the lead grew back to 17 when Chris Palombizio dropped in a layup with just more than 16 minutes left. However, things tightened up near the midpoint of the half, largely behind Henderson. Henderson scored on a drive to make it 63-52 with 10:04 to play and the Jags got a stop, forcing Walker into a wild three. Hayes, Hall and Henderson all converged on the rebound along the baseline before Hall came away with possession. Hayes, upset by no foul call, was hit with a technical for yelling at the official as the teams made their way back up court. It was his fourth second half foul and fifth of the game, rendering Oakland without an interior presence for the final nine-plus minutes. 

Henderson connected on four straight free throws on the ensuing possession as part of an 11-1 run that made it a three-point game with 7:43 left. However, IUPUI got no closer that three the rest of the way as Oakland tightened the screws late. 

Nunn, coming off a 3-of-22 shooting effort, made 9-of-16 shots against the Jags on Sunday. Nick Daniels scored nine of his 11 points at the free throw line off the Oakland bench and sophomore guard Stan Scott closed with seven points, eight boards and five assists.

Minnett hit 4-of-10 threes in a career-high scoring effort. IUPUI got six points each from Nick Rogers and D.J. McCall and Goss finished with five points and nine rebounds. The IUPUI bench, fueled by the 30 combined points from Minnett and Henderson, outscored Oakland's reserves 43-20. The loss dropped IUPUI to 15-27 all-time against Oakland and extended the Jaguars' winless streak in Rochester to eight straight. 
 
IUPUI will return home to host Cleveland State on Thursday night (Feb. 8) inside Indiana Farmers Coliseum at 7:00 p.m.. That game will be aired on ESPN3 as Greg Rakestraw (pxp) and Hall of Famer Bob Lovell (analyst) are on the call. That game will be the department's Crimson & White Night and a campus-wide Greek Life Night. In addition, the IUPUI Athletics Department will recognize selected faculty and staff members from across campus as part of Favorite Professor Night. Tickets are available via TicketMaster or by contacting Lauren Gronke in the athletics department.