by MUNCIE, Ind.- The Ball State Cardinals hosted the Miami (OH) Redhawks fought for the top spot in the Mid American Conference at Worthen Arena on Saturday, Jan. 24. Ball State lost this matchup at home to slide into second place in the MAC.
Ball State entered this contest on a seven-game winning streak with their last win coming against UMass with a 78-60 score. The Cards held a 15-4 overall record and a 7-0 record in league play.
Miami (OH) came into this game on an eight-game winning streak. As well as Ball State, the Redhawks found themselves without a loss in MAC play.
The first half was full of action. Ball State found themselves down by 11 with 6:04 to play in the half, but before the half ended, the Cardinals went on a 10-5 run to close the half to close the gap. Ball State found themselves down by four at halftime with five points left to be desired from missed free throws.
Both coaches were getting into it about some controversial officiating.
Ball State head coach Brady Sallee showed frustration after a missed over and back call by the officials. Coach Sallee paced and jumped up to sit on the scorer’s table to show his displeasure with how the game was being called. Soon after, the coaches displayed their frustrations towards one another by getting into a dispute mid game.
The Redhawks played as well as they could in the third quarter. Miami ended the quarter on a 17-2 run and won the quarter 27-9 to separate themselves from the Cardinals. For Miami, Ilse de Vries scored 10 points, and Amber Tretter added 11 of her own in part of the huge third quarter effort for the Redhawks.
Coach Sallee talked about Miami’s big third-quarter run.
“They turned their defense into offense and giving us fits,” explained Sallee. “They did a number on us in the paint. They were really pounding the ball inside. It’s clearly something we’re not used to.”
Ball State’ struggles showed offensively and defensively in this matchup.
The Cardinals recorded a season-low in points with 52 in the loss. The Cardinals shot 40% from the field and 29% from three-point range. Ball State also had lower-than-average bench scoring in their matchup with Miami. The bench scored just eight points.
Ball State, defensively, got out-rebounded by Miami who is last in team rebounding in the MAC. Despite Ball State being the best rebounding team in the Mid American, Miami won the matchup 35-30.
Coach Sallee talked about how well Miami played in this matchup.
“Their kids were locked into it, and they executed at a high level,” said Sallee. “They forced us into some shots I think that they dictated for us to take.”
Ball State, for the first time this year, Ball State entered the final two minutes without having scored 50 points in the game.
This game marked the worst home MAC loss for the Cardinals since Jan. 2, 2021 against Bowling Green where they lost 89-55.
Ball State took their first loss in league play moving them to 7-1 snapping their seven-game winning streak. They look towards their matchup with Central Michigan on Jan. 28.
Coach Sallee talked about how they bounce back to play against Central Michigan next week.
“Not a whole lot changes, to be honest with you,” said Sallee. “Whether we won or a lost, we are going to have to show up Monday ready to play Central Michigan.”
