by Michael Lewis said he noticed the lack of energy from Ball State men’s basketball way before the team faced Toledo Saturday afternoon.
Even before the Cardinals stepped foot inside John F. Savage Arena, he said they were lacking attention to detail when they met at their hotel this morning.
“Why that is, I don’t know. We didn’t do anything different on this trip that we’ve done on any other one,” Lewis said. “We didn’t have the competitiveness in us today that we’ve had the last month.”
A few hours later, the team left the court after the Rockets snapped Ball State’s three-game Mid-American Conference (MAC) win streak. Following the 73-55 defeat, Lewis was not amused.
“We didn’t really have anybody who was really looking to meet that challenge,” he said. “We didn’t want any part of it, and that part’s disappointing.”
Ball State’s 55 points were tied for the fifth-lowest total points scored this season by the team, and it was the second time they hit that mark.
In 40 minutes of play, the Cardinals (7-14, 3-6 MAC) only had two double-figure scorers. That was redshirt sophomore forward Kayden Fish — who had a collegiate career-high 14 points before leaving the game with some type of injury in the second half — and junior guard Armoni Zeigler, who added 13.
The next Cardinal behind them was senior guard Devon Barnes with seven points.
As a team, Ball State finished the game 16-for-51 (31.4 percent) and 4-for-20 (20 percent) beyond the 3-point arc.
“I thought our two-point shooting percentage had really gotten better as of late, but we went back to some bad habits,” Lewis said. “Playing off one foot, running into traffic … We got a lot of things to clean up here in the next two days.”
Though Ball State only trailed 15-13 seven minutes into the first half, things changed. The Rockets (12-10, 6-4 MAC) jumped to a 10-point lead following an 8-0 run.
The Cardinals responded with a run of their own and cut the lead to just 25-20 with six minutes to go in the half. But again, Toledo came back in a similar fashion as they ended the period with a 14-9 run. This gave the Rockets a 39-27 lead at halftime. After outscoring Ball State 10-5 in the opening minutes of the second half, they were in full control.
The Cardinals were topped in paint points 34-24 and finished the game with 14 turnovers. Zeigler had six of those as the Toledo defense keyed on halting any type of momentum Ball State had. In total, the Rockets stole the ball nine times.
Lewis said it was not just the fact that it happened, but it was how this occurred that disappointed him. He highlighted the efforts from Toledo junior guard Sonny Wilson and freshman forward Leroy Blyden Jr.
“We were unaggressive in our attack. Maybe Wilson and Blyden were too much for our guys,” Lewis said. “You go back and look, and you’re asking guys if they can do stuff they can’t do.
You just don’t see that at our level [when] guys are just taking somebody’s ball like that.”
Though the Cardinals failed to locate a navigable route to discover offensive success, the Rockets did. As a team, they were 27-for-55 (49.1 percent) from the field despite going 7-for-22 (31.8 percent) from deep.
Three different Toledo players hit double-figure point totals as Wilson, senior forward Sean Craig and Blyden combined for 47 points — 19, 15 and 13. The trio alone thwarted Ball State’s defensive game plan.
“Maybe Toledo’s that much better than us … They’ve done some good things and put a roster together,” Lewis said. “They’ve got a really good first five. Their depth hasn’t been great, but they’ve built on that. They just had their way with us, and it started on the perimeter.”
The Cardinals will go back on the road Tuesday, Feb. 3, when they visit Bowling Green at 7 p.m.
During the quick turnaround, Lewis said he wants the Cardinals to forget about this game and rediscover what has worked in the past.
“I want to see what we’ve seen in the other 20 games we’ve played. Let’s fight. Just have enough pride in yourself to fight,” he said. “Hopefully it’s an outlier because I haven’t seen that from this group up to this point.”
Contact Zach Carter via email at zachary.carter@bsu.edu, zachcarter039@gmail.com or via X @ZachCarter85.
