Cardinals beat Falcons by 21 at home

"I've had enough," he said. "I think they put a memorandum out the other day that said for (officials) to get a NCAA tournament officiating job, you have to control the bench," Dakich said.

"I've kicked the sideline 80 gazillion times," Dakich said. "I knew I was going to go. I've just had enough."

Dakich went on to explain that his frustration also came from "smirks" and being "laughed at" by the officials.

Another aspect of Wednesday's game that seemed to make the contest a bit haywire was the amount of fouls. By the final horn, there were 50 fouls that had been called. Ball State had two players foul out--Michael Bennett and Kevin Cates. The Falcons had three players reach the five foul limit in Cory Eyink, John Reimold and Kevin Netter.

From the line it was the Falcons who shot more accurately hitting 84 percent from the charity stripe. Ball State shot 76 percent from the free throw line.

Adding a little more excitement to the game was Ball State's offensive play Wednesday night.

For the first time this season, and the first time since playing IUPUI last season on Dec. 15, 2001, the Cardinals finished with five players in double figures. Ball State was led by senior Chris Williams, who had 25 points. However, in the first 15 minutes of the game, Bowling Green seemingly had Williams under control with a 1-2-2 zone defense.

"We didn't attack it like we should have," Buckley said. "I think our guys were a little surprised by it because Bowling Green never plays zone. We had that 'east-west' mentality where you just dribble around the 3-point line."

Williams explained he had difficulty making it into the lane, a weapon he is used to using.

"I really couldn't get to the basket tonight, especially with their zone," Williams said.

That was until Williams decided to shoot a 3-point shot from approximately 26-feet out. After that shot, Williams drained three more 3-pointers in under a minute and a half of play.

"I really don't look at where my feet are when I shoot the ball," Williams said. "If I'm feeling it then I'll take deep shots. I don't think anybody on this team has a problem with that."

Williams finished with 25 points after attempting only 10 shots in the night.

Dakich was only on the sidelines for the first half of play after his ejection, but said Williams onslaught of three's was the difference.

"I though in the first half, the key to the game was the stretch that Chris Williams had," Dakich said.

Robert Owens added 20 in his double-double performance after a game-high 12 rebounds.

"I came out really aggressive, but I was really trying to concentrate on rebounding," Owens said. "When I start off rebounding then I usually have a well-rounded game."

Cameron Echols finished with 13, as did Matt McCollom while freshman Kyle Cox had a career-high 10 points.

Perhaps even more dazzling for the Cardinals was the number of assists on which they scored their 94 points. Ball State finished with 21 assists, the highest this season and the highest since facing IUPUI this season on Dec. 3. In that game Ball State had 22 assists.

"More importantly than the points was assists," Buckley said. "I thought the guys did a good job of distributing the ball.

The high energy Wednesday night came in part, according to Buckley and Williams both, from the student section which was 1,160.

"I have never seen the student section that packed this year," Williams said. "We appreciate their support. We were just so grateful, it got us going."

The student turnout Wednesday night was second only to the student attendance for the IU game on December 31.

"We want to take on the rose rowdies," Buckley said, "Everyone talks about the Central Michigan student section, but I'll put ours out against anybody's.

"It just keeps getting bigger and better. A lot of those people where over there when the Cardinals were struggling," Buckley said. "And they kept coming back and battling for us. They have just been a great source of energy for us."