Jesse Berry stood near the bench, peeking his head in at the video monitor to see if the shot counted.
When the lead referee put his hand down to signal the basket good, Ball State’s junior guard ran across the court, jumped on the media table and pumped up the crowd of 2,633 at Worthen Arena with chants of “Lets go!”
Berry had just driven the length of the floor and found junior forward Majok Majok under the basket for a two-handed dunk as the clock expired to beat Norfolk State 62-61 in Wednesday’s game.
“When I caught it, I was just thinking get the ball up the floor to give us a chance at a shot,” Berry said. “When I passed half court, I saw it was around four or maybe three [seconds left], and I said all right, I can get in the paint. When I got in the paint—I just kept going and found Majok on the lefty pass and he finished big-time.”
Majok’s slam sent the team and fans into a frenzy.
After recording his fourth assist of the game to go along with a game-high 21 points, Berry ran around the court screaming before being hoisted at half court by freshman Marcus Posley.
“I was a little turned up on that—a little excited,” Berry said. “This is a big win coming off a loss. We’re going into [Mid-American Conference] play and feeding off this win. [We’re going to] make it hot right here.”
The Cardinals touch from long-range was certainly hot Wednesday.
Ball State shot 57.1 percent from deep, and the team’s 12 3-pointers were the highest total since the Cardinals hit 14 against Eastern Michigan back in 2006.
“We’ve been sticking to what we’ve been doing the whole year and just getting extra shots up,” senior guard Jauwan Scaife said. “Being confident and knowing at some point that some team was going to have to pay for us not being able to shoot as good [earlier in the season].”
That confidence was unleashed on the Spartans Wednesday.
Scaife scored fifteen of his 18 points from 3-point range as he and Berry hit six of their combined 10 shots from behind the arc in the first half to give Ball State a 29-23 lead going into the break.
“The game has been slowing down, but now that I’m making shots, it’s been slowing down even more,” Scaife said after scoring a combined 39 points over the past two games. “A lot of things are opening up and I’m seeing the court a lot more. Especially this game, I saw a lot of things that I probably wouldn’t see in a lot of other games.”
One thing Scaife and the rest of the Cardinals were forced to watch was their lead, and what looked the game, slip away from them in the second half.
After taking a 12-point lead with 11:42 remaining, the Cardinals’ offense stalled against the Spartans box-and-one defense and they surrendered a 12-0 to tie the game.
“It’s always tough going against length,” Berry said. “You think about CB [Chris Bond]. He’s a lengthy guy. It’s like playing against a whole bunch of CB’s out there [against Norfolk State]. There’s a whole bunch of legs and arms and they play with activity and makes it that much harder.”
While Ball State was forced to hoist bad shots to beat the clock on countless possessions, Norfolk State’s duo of Pendarvis Williams and Malcolm Hawkins—they combined for 29 points—hit shot after shot to trim Ball State’s lead and eventually take a five-point advantage with 4:45 to go.
Scaife and junior forward Tyler Koch both hit 3-pointers before Berry hit two free throws to trim the deficit to one point.
After Bond went 1-of-2 from the line, Norfolk State’s Rob Johnson hit two free throws that forced Berry to drive the length of the court and make a play.
While Ball State’s leading scorer won the game with his crafty pass to Majok, Scaife said Ball State’s hot shooting early was the catalyst in the victory.
“It helped us help others because once we had the open shot, we could be unselfish enough to kick it to somebody else for an even better shot,” Scaife said. “It just all came together and made us tough to guard. I think because of that it put us in a position to win the game.”
