Peyton Stovall stood behind the free-throw line for the first of two shots with Ball State University's men's basketball team down 60-58 with nine seconds left in the game and the chance to tie.
Knowing he had missed the shot, Stovall yelled, "Oh my God!" almost immediately after he released the ball. Stovall made the second free throw, but the miss forced the Cardinals to foul on the inbound pass in order to regain possession for a last second shot. Central Michigan University's Robbie Harman, who is a 71 percent free throw shooter for the season, missed the first shot and made the second to advance the Chippewas' lead to two.
Ball State was able to get the ball into the hands of Skip Mills as the clock wound down. Mills' last second 3-pointer rimmed-out and Central Michigan pulled down the rebound as time expired, and the Cardinals (9-17, 5-8 in the Mid-American Conference) lost 61-59.
"We work on late game situations all the time, for a situation like what we had tonight," coach Ronny Thompson said at the post game press conference. "And we executed perfectly and Skip got a good look; it just didn't fall."
Stovall's miss was the eighth free throw Ball State had missed in a game with plenty of physical play that included an intentional foul in the first two minutes, two players fouling out and a double technical foul being issued.
"It was a typical MAC game tonight," Thompson said. "It was a typical MAC war."
The loss, the Cardinals 18th of the season, featured another late game run that saw the Cardinals cut down on the lead before eventually losing.
"Winning is a process, and that's something that has to be learned," Thompson said. "That's a learned trait. That's nothing that you wave a magical wand at. And we have a group of guys that are trying to learn that."
Ball State started out sluggish, a trend that has plagued the Cardinals for much of the season. The Chippewas scored 11 of the first 12 points and dominated the first four minutes of the game.
The Cardinals called a timeout and Mills checked into the game after sitting out for the last two games with a concussion. The Cardinals then went on a 15-5 run to tie the game at 16.
Ball State kept the score close for much of the rest of the first half, and led by two at one point. However, a Central run at the end of the half gave the Chippewas' a 38-31 lead at half-time.
"We just can't dig ourselves in a hole and try and come back every game," sophomore Anthony Newell said. "You can blame it on starters, but we can't just keep digging out of holes every game, cause it ends up like this."
With 10:28 left in the game, senior Micah Rollin fouled out with the Cardinals down 49-41. Sefton Barrett, whom Rollin had fouled, hit one of his two free throws to bring Central Michigan's lead to nine.
Ball State scored 10 of the next 12 points on the backs of Brandon Lampley and Ahmaad Cook to bring the lead to one. Immediately after Cook scored a put-back layup against Reynold Walters, Cook began to stand next to Walters with a smug look on his face. After Walters pushed off, Cook returned, and Walters bumped into him again. The two began yelling at each other and eventually started grabbing each other. A fight nearly broke out as officials and coaches rushed on the floor to break the two players up.
"People were just out there playing tough; rough plays. I guess it just escalated into something else," Newell said. "I don't think there's any bad blood. We were just playing hard and getting into other people's game. And when that happens that will happen."
The officials reviewed the play and decided on a double technical foul and returned the ball to the Chippewas. The Cardinals would again tie the score at 58 when Mills hit a jumper and was fouled by Walters. Mills hit his free throw and the score was tied for the fourth time in the game.
On the next possession, Giordan Watson hit a short jump shot with 13 seconds left in the game and less than ten seconds on the shot clock to bring the score to 60-58.
"Watson hit a big shot, and it went in," Thompson said. "It was a war, and we knew it would be that coming in."
Ball State will move on to play at Eastern Michigan University Sunday. Another loss will all but ensure the Cardinals will have only the second 20-loss season in school history.
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