Even though Ball State University scored 29 more points Wednesday night than it did in its season opener, the Cardinals' offense was a glaring weakness in the final stretch.
Cardinals' forward Anthony Newell finished with a career-high 29 points, but he was the only player to score for Ball State in the late going of Wednesday's loss. Newell scored nine of the Cardinals' final 13 points in regulation and connected on both of Ball State's two field goals in the last 7:30. In that stretch, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee came from eight points down to force overtime, where it eventually earned an 81-74 victory.
"We'd certainly like to have more balance, but we continued to get points in regulation after [UW-Milwaukee] took a [late] lead," Taylor said. "I give our guys credit for being patient and recognizing that Anthony was a hot hand."
The lack of depth Ball State had off its bench compared to UW-Milwaukee was noticeable. Newell was one of four Ball State players to log at least 40 minutes, while none of the UW-Milwaukee players played 40 minutes and two had at least 30. The Cardinals used eight players throughout the 45 minutes of basketball, while the Panthers played 11 players in the game.
In his first start with Ball State, junior LaRon Frazier was the Cardinals' second-leading scorer with 19 points. Other than a layup at the end of overtime, however, Frazier didn't score in the final 7:30 of regulation.
Despite Ball State's lack of depth, Frazier declined to blame his team's loss on tired legs.
"It didn't play that much of a factor because we play really hard in practice," Frazier said. "Our legs were hurting, but that's still no excuse for us."
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