CLEVELAND, Ohio - The IUPUI basketball team dug a double-digit hole early in the second half before trying to storm back on the road at Cleveland State on Thursday night (Jan. 30) before ultimately falling to the Vikings, 72-62 inside Wolstein Center. Junior Marcus Burk led four Jaguars in double-digits with 18 points, albeit on 5-of-16 shooting as both teams struggled to find an offensive rhythm. Junior Jaylen Minnett added 12 points on 4-of-13 shooting, before fouling out, and Grant Weatherford had 11 points, six assists, five boards and five steals in the loss. Elyjah Goss added his ninth double-double of the season with 10 points and 12 rebounds. 

Torrey Patton and Craig Beaudion scored 18 each for Cleveland State (9-14, 5-5 HL) and Algevon Eichelberger contributed 14 points and eight rebounds. Franklyn Penn Jr. rounded out CSU's double-digit scorers with 11 points and eight rebounds. 

IUPUI (6-17, 2-8 HL) shot just 36 percent overall and 7-of-24 (29.2 percent) from three-point range, while CSU fared only slightly better at 37.7 percent shooting. However, CSU bullied the undermanned Jaguars on the interior, outscoring IUPUI 36-22 in the paint and outrebounding the Jaguars, 46-32. IUPUI was without Isaiah Williams for a fourth straight game and both Zo Tyson and Jakoby Kemp were unavailable as well. Things got even tougher when Jamil Jackson Jr. left the game in the first half with an injury, forcing little used freshman Taveion White into a season-high 15 minutes. The Texas-native who came in with zero points and six rebounds in his collegiate career, contributed seven points, two rebounds and a blocked shot. 

IUPUI trailed 26-24 with 2:23 left before halftime when Burk swished a wing trey off a find from Weatherford, only to see Cleveland State score the final six points of the half on back-to-back treys. Patton drilled an open three, followed by a trey from Kasheem Thomas. The Vikings proceeded to score the first five points of the second half on an Eichelberger three-point play and a Patton layup to build a 13-point lead with 18:14 left. The lead later swelled to 15 on a Patton three with 10:56 remaining before the Jags clawed back in the game. 

The Jaguars outscored CSU by a 10-1 count over a six-minute span as both teams struggled to score. Weatherford opened the run with a trey and Goss followed with a layup. However, both teams were held scoreless over the next four-plus minutes until Goss scored again with a pair of free throws with 5:43 to play. Penn fired back by splitting a pair of free throws with 5:18 left, but Burk scored on a three after Goss rebounded a Minnett miss and kicked out for a second three-point attempt. 

Cleveland State quickly pushed the lead back to 11 before Minnett hit back-to-back jumpers to make it 62-56 with 2:58 remaining. However, the comeback attempt became even more difficult when Minnett fouled out on a reach in on CSU's ensuing possession with 2:32 remaining. 

Minnett extended his personal streak of consecutive games with a three made to 59-in-a-row, tying for the eighth-longest in NCAA Division I history. He moved his career scoring total to 971 points and moved into fourth on IUPUI's all-time list with 203 career threes made. Goss, who recorded his 12th career double-double, moved up to a tie for 12th place on IUPUI's all-time list with 568 career rebounds. 

The loss gave Cleveland State a season sweep of the head-to-head series and the all-time series moved to 4-4 all-time. 

IUPUI will return to action on Saturday (Feb. 1) when the Jaguars face Youngstown State at 6:00 p.m. on ESPN3. That game will cap a stretch of four straight road games for the Jaguars.