Ball State University's men's basketball team continued its struggles in ESPN Bracket Buster games as it dropped to 0-5 all time in the event by losing to Illinois State University 70-57.
The Cardinals (9-17) were again without leading scorer Skip Mills and featured an unusual Cardinal lineup. Former starters Chris Ames and Steve Horton played less than two minutes each, while Ahmaad Cook and Jarelle Redden moved into the starting lineup. Mills dressed for the game, but did not play after being diagnosed with a concussion Monday.
The Redbirds (14-14) were led by 6-foot-11-inch center Levi Dyer who scored 29 points on 11-of-13 shooting, including four 3-pointers. Dyer was one of four Illinois State players to score in double figures in the schools' first meeting in more than 30 years.
"Dyer played a tremendous game," Ball State coach Ronny Thompson said. "We were just getting to him too slowly in the first half and they did a good job of finding him. He's a big, strong kid and after he hit his first two or three shots, he had it going."
Ball State was able to pull the lead to within one point in the second half at 50-49 with a Cook 3-pointer, but the Redbirds scored the next nine points to pull away from the Cardinals.
"This is not one of those games where I thought we didn't give a good effort," Thompson said. "We had them on their heels in the second half, but just could not get over the hump."
Ball State was led by Peyton Stovall who scored 18 points, had seven assists and three steals in 36 minutes. Cook added 16 and Anthony Newell had 13 points while Micah Rollin pulled down a game-high nine rebounds.
The loss is the 17th of the season for the Cardinals, which ties for sixth all time in most losses in a season for Ball State. The most losses in school history was in 1970-71 when the Cardinals went 6-20.
The Cardinals have four more regular-season games against Mid-American Conference opponents starting Thursday at Worthen Arena against Central Michigan University.
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