Following a win against Bowling Green State University to open competition against the Mid-American Conference East Division, it looked as though Ball State University would breeze through its next five games against East opponents.
Instead, Saturday's loss at Kent State University was the Cardinals' fourth in their past five games, dropping them to third in the MAC West Division. Ball State took a two-point lead into halftime but was outscored by 17 points in the second half to suffer a 69-54 defeat.
"Being frustrated after every game ends with the same result every time definitely takes a toll on you," senior forward Lisa Rusche said, describing the team's frustration level during the past five games. "You're always talking about getting your opponent next game and then you don't."
Ball State trailed 36-34 with 13:36 remaining in the second half when the Golden Flashes went on a 14-2 run to stretch their lead to 14 points with slightly more than eight minutes to play. The closest the Cardinals got the remainder of the game was nine points, and they trailed by double digits throughout the last seven minutes of regulation.
Kent State used a zone defense to hold Ball State to its lowest point total since a 17-point home loss to Butler University. The Golden Flashes zone held Ball State to 32 percent from the field and 4-of-18 from behind the 3-point arc.
Acting head coach Lisa McDonald said the most effective aspect of Kent State's zone defense was that it slowed the game down and prevented her team from running the court in transition.
"Their zone was more of a struggle than I anticipated because we worked on our zone offense all week in practice," McDonald said. "We needed to do a better job of attacking the gaps of the zone instead of settling for outside shots. We just didn't do a good job executing and staying in our attack mode."
McDonald said she's worried her team's poor play against the zone could provide a blueprint for other opponents to know how to defend her club.
"We haven't seen a lot of zone defense because nobody has really played us in a zone throughout the entire season," McDonald said. "Anybody who got to watch the game knows we struggled against the zone. I would think now teams would want to play us in more zone. I know I would if I was an opposing coach and saw what I saw."
Ball State played without its senior captain, forward Julie DeMuth, who sat out with sore knees. DeMuth's absence enabled Kent State to earn a 26-20 scoring advantage in the paint.
"She probably could've played a few minutes here and there, but she could barely walk in the locker room before the game," McDonald said. "We knew if she played Saturday we wouldn't have her [in Ball State's next game] against Toledo."
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