CLEVELAND--Staying competitive throughout the second half, Ball State had a chance to cut its deficit to two points with two minutes left in Wednesday's opening round of the Mid-American Conference Tournament.
However, senior Peyton Stovall missed a fast-break layup, and Eastern Michigan answered with a transition bucket to push its lead to six.
With a 59-55 loss, the four-point swing could've prolonged the Cardinals' season and Stovall's career. Instead, the two possessions explain how Ball State lost 10 of its school-record 24 losses this season by six points or less.
"There's no certain area," Stovall said, trying to reason why his team hasn't been able to close out games this year. "It's little things that we have to do to win games, and we haven't been able to do them."
Ball State's primary objective next year will be to turn those close losses into wins. Coach Billy Taylor said the best way to do that is to gain experience, and the first-year coach pointed to Eastern Michigan as a good example for what he's trying to do with his program.
The Eagles played four seniors and three juniors Wednesday, and no freshmen saw action. In contrast, the Cardinals started two redshirt freshmen, and Stovall was the lone senior in their lineup.
"Eastern Michigan is building a very nice program," Taylor said. "They've got some juniors and seniors - some experienced guys. For a lot of the key stretches we had three freshmen out there. We had walk-ons playing with 10 minutes to go in the game."
Taylor's work this season impressed his opposing coach, Eastern Michigan's Charles Ramsey. After playing Ball State three times this year, including a 64-60 loss at Worthen Arena on Jan. 19, the Eagles' third-year coach predicted success will come to a Cardinals' program that has had little to cheer about during the past two seasons.
"My hat goes off to Ball State University and the effort and energy they played with," Ramsey said in his opening statement. "Coach Taylor's staff had them prepared. They came out and battled for 40 minutes as we anticipated. I see bright things down in Muncie coming in the future, and I wish them nothing but the best."
Despite the turmoil his program experienced during the summer offseason and the inexperienced lineup its played with throughout the 2007-08 campaign, Taylor admits he would've liked to capitalize on more opportunities to win close games. At the same time, however, he said he's pleased with where his team is headed in the near future.
"The main goal is to build the building blocks of the program," Taylor said. "We wanted to lay the foundation in terms of the way we compete and the way we handle ourselves off the court, and I think we did that. Our kids played with a lot of class and a lot of integrity. We're going to continue to add on pieces of the puzzle to the mix so we can come back strong next year."
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