Despite breaking its losing streak three days ago at Kent State, the Ball State women's basketball team couldn't get things done against Buffalo, falling 61-37 at home.
Ball State started out hot from beyond the arc. Junior guard Shanee' Jackson hit two straight threes, then freshman Shelbie Justice hit a three to narrow the lead to one at 8-7.
However, the biggest problem defensively for Ball State was attempting to contain Buffalo's bigger players. 6'2 forward Nytor Longar scored 16 points, and 6'2 senior forward Beth Christiansen led the game with 12 rebounds.
When Longar came out of the game, 6'2 freshman center Christa Baccas provided the Bulls with another big presence for the Cardinals to contend with.
"(Longar) got out to a quick start, and I think we were able to switch a couple of things defensively that helped with that. . . . We gave them second chance points and it just ended up being the margin that it was," Ball State head coach Kelly Packard said.
Following Justice's 3-pointer with 11:06 remaining, the Cardinals didn't score until 1:34 remaining in the first half, off a pair of Jackson free throws.
Despite the scoring drought of the first half, Ball State was only down 10 with just under 13 minutes left in the game. From that point, Buffalo went on a 23-9 run to end the game.
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