IUPUI vs. Ball State men's basketball recap: Cardinals prevail late in spite of valiant effort from the Jaguars, 61-58

The IUPUI Jaguars entered this game with one goal in mind: upset another Indiana school. After beating Indiana State earlier in the season by two points, the Jaguars have embraced the underdog role, playing big in games against bigger schools.

And that is exactly what the Jaguars did, never falling behind by more than eleven points. Ball State was unable to truly take control of this game, and missed free throws are one downfall that could attribute to that.

The Cardinals jumped out to an early nine point lead in the first half, aided by three Ryan Weber three-pointers. An IUPUI timeout stopped the run, and really halted the momentum for the Cardinals, as they proceeded to turn the ball over four times in the next two minutes. This led to a Jaguars run, and then resulted in a back-and-forth scoring match for the rest of the half, which ended with a 31-28 Cardinals lead.

At this point, the Ball State defense had led IUPUI's leading scorer Darell Combs to five points on only four shot attempts. The Cardinals offense was mostly a result of the three-point streak from early in the half, by Bo Calhoun and Ryan Weber.

Right out of the gate, Ryan Weber and Francis Kiapway combined for three three-pointers, to give the Cardinals their largest lead of the game since 14:21 remaining in the first, at 40-31. Another IUPUI timeout proved effective, as it resulted in another Jaguar run, where they were able to bring it within four points. About halfway through the second half, Ball State began reaching the free throw stripe with ease. Unfortunately, they were unable to capitalize, and combined for 7-15 from the line. IUPUI was not able to take advantage of these misses, eventually falling short 61-58, after bringing the game within one point.

The Cardinals bench came up big, especially in the second half, with tremendous support from Trey Moses, Jeremie Tyler, and Jeremiah Davis, who all combined for 20 points on the game. Because of all the help from the bench, there was no player above 13 points (Francis Kiapway).

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