With Ball State University's men's basketball team down 49-48 with 31 seconds remaining, Skip Mills missed a long, but open 3-pointer when the ball rolled out of the rim. On the next possession, Anthony Newell missed a jumper from 15 feet away when the ball bounced off the inside of the rim.
"It's pretty frustrating," Mills said. "I had five balls that went in the basket and came out. This is one of those times, I guess, where you really don't want that to happen."
Eastern Michigan University hit two free throws on separate possessions and the Cardinals lost 51-48 in the first round of the Mid-American Conference Tournament, ending one of the worst seasons in Ball State history.
"We lost," Newell said. "I still feel we're a better team if you want to ask me again, but once again the final score didn't go our way."
The game was an example of the shooting woes the Cardinals have had all season. Ball State shot 25.9 percent from the field, its worst percentage this season. Overall, this year the Cards were among the five worst shooting teams in the country.
"We just struggled shooting the ball this year," coach Ronny Thompson said. "I think that those guys did all they could. They got the open looks. They did what they were supposed to do."
The Cardinals closed the season with 22 losses - the most in school history - and nine wins, the fewest since 1984. The Cardinals 9-22 record is the fourth worst in school history when ranked by winning percentage, behind 1970-71 (6-20), 1959-60 (5-17) and the first year of the program in 1920-21 (1-4).
The Cardinals scored the first four points against Eastern, but Jesse Bunkley hit two 3-pointers to give the Eagles a 6-4 lead that sparked an 11-1 Eastern run. The Cardinals scored the next two buckets on a tip-in from Newell and a Peyton Stovall 3-pointer to cut the lead to 11-10.
Eastern Michigan scored 16 of the next 18 points, leading 27-12 with 8:54 remaining in the game.
Bunkley ended the half with 15 points on five 3-pointers, but didn't score for the rest of the game.
"We got into the locker room at halftime and I used a few choice words and they kind of got the point," Thompson said. "We did a much better job on [Bunkley] in the second half. I thought we didn't have him on a short enough leash in the first half."
By halftime, Ball State had cut the lead to 32-25, but the Eagles responded by scoring the first five points in the second half. Eastern maintained at least a seven-point lead until the 8:44 mark, where the Cardinals started their final run of the game.
After trailing 45-33, the Cardinals scored 15 of the next 19 points in the closing minutes to bring the score to 49-48 with 51 seconds remaining.
"It was pretty much all defense," Mills said. "We just all got together and decided we weren't going to let them score."
Ball State forced 25 turnovers in the game, 13 of which were steals. The Cardinals scored 21 points of those turnovers, which tied for fifth most this season.
"I think that was a key to us this year and we have to play that way just because we struggle shooting the ball," Thompson said. "On top of that we forced them to shoot a good percentage, the kind of percentage you want if you're trying to win a game. But we shot 10 percent less than that."
The 25 forced turnovers were the most since the Cardinals forced Northern Colorado University to make 26 in the season opener.
"They defend better than anyone in the conference," Eastern Michigan coach Charles Ramsey said. "They made it very difficult for us to get into our offense."
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