As Ball State University senior guard Peyton Stovall headed back to the locker room following Wednesday night's 57-48 loss to fifth-ranked Georgetown University, he could be seen jumping up and down in excitement and yelling, "Man, if only we'd had [Anthony] Newell!"
Newell, the Cardinals' 6'5" junior forward, fractured his foot in practice Tuesday.
The sentiment was certainly shared by many of the fans in attendance for the defeat, which saw the Cardinals pull as close as six points with two minutes to play before falling to 0-3 for the first time since the 1973-74 season.
"We'd have loved to have Anthony out there," Ball State coach Billy Taylor said. "But I couldn't be more proud of the effort we put out there tonight."
Despite the absence of Newell and 7'2" center Roy Hibbert towering over every Cardinals' player, Ball State managed to hold Georgetown's rebounding advantage to five for the game. 5'9" Cardinals' guard Melvin Goins pulled down seven rebounds, the same amount as Hibbert managed.
"Melvin came out and played well," Stovall said. "Our young guys gave us a lot of energy."
One burst of energy brought the Worthen Arena crowd back into the game with ten minutes left in the 2nd half. Hibbert went up for a layup only to be rejected by Cardinals' junior forward Rob Giles, who is ten inches shorter than Hibbert. Ball State then got the ball to Goins for a layup that cut the Hoyas' lead to ten. The crowd, and the Cardinals, remained intense for the remainder of the game.
Ball State's defensive game plan was to contain Hibbert with a zone defense. Georgetown obliged by shooting 25 three-pointers, making seven. Taylor said he was impressed with his team's execution.
"Roy Hibbert's a player of the year candidate," Taylor said. "We had to give something up. I thought we were able to get some stops and get some rebounds."
Entering the game, the major storyline was the return of the Thompson family to Worthen Arena, four months after Ronny Thompson's resignation as Ball State's coach. For his part, Hoyas' coach John Thompson III, Ronny's brother, said he didn't think about his brother during the game.
"It was just another away game," Thompson said. "It was our first road game of the year. We won."
Stovall led the Cardinals' first-half attack, scoring twelve of the Cardinals' 18 points in the first frame. He finished with a team-leading 16, pushing him over 1,000 points for his career. He is the 24th Ball State player to reach the mark.
"Coach gave us the confidence to come out and expect to win," Stovall said. "When tip-off came, we expected to win."
Although the team fell short of that expectation, Stovall admitted that the game was a small moral victory for Ball State.
"It was the number five team in the nation, and we stuck with them," Stovall said.
For full coverage of the Georgetown game, read Monday's edition of The Ball State Daily News.
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