Ball State gave Mid-American Conference leader Toledo all it could handle Saturday afternoon in its 80-73 loss, falling to 4-17 on the year.
The Cardinals played with strong effort in a game where personal fouls seemed to take dominance over the play of both teams.
“They’re 20-3,” Ball State basketball head coach James Whitford said. “They played (No.16) Kansas to a 10 point game, they’re a good team and they played a good game.”
There were a total of 50 personal fouls called in Saturday’s action with Ball State picking up 24 of the calls. Mark Alstork ended up fouling out of the game with 4:22 left to play, his All-MAC teammate and center Majok Majok picked up his final foul with just 18 seconds left.
“It was a well officiated game,” Whitford said. “That didn’t impact the game, we didn’t win it.”
Toledo walked into Worthen Arena Saturday with momentum on its side as the Rockets were attempting to get win No. 20 of the season. They’re the first Rockets team to win 20 games since the 2005-2006 season.
Momentum shifted in the first half of the game. At the 16:02 mark, the reigning Mid-American Conference West Player of the Week,
Julius “Juice” Brown picked up his second foul sending him to the bench early.
The Cardinals were down 33-18 with 8:46 left in the half before Chris Bond forced the crowd of 2,722 people to rise to their feet as he drove to the basket for a one-handed dunk on a Toledo defender.
After a Franko House layup and a pair of three-pointers from Alstork and Zavier Turner, Quinten Payne intercepted a pass and took it the length of the floor for a two-handed flush, capping off a 17-0 run for Ball State before the opening half ended.
The Rockets would score once more before the opening period to tie the game at 35 apiece. After the intermission, Toledo opened up the second half on a 20-9 run before Ball State closed the gap to 62-61 with 7:03 left.
Brown would go on to foul out of the game as he received a personal and a technical foul to become disqualified from further action as he finished with 18 points. Brown and Turner guarded each other for most of the afternoon as each player was seen trash-talking the other on separate occasions.
Turner stated that when he was younger he played against Brown in an AAU circuit.
“That’s not the first time I played against him,” Turner said. “Coming into this game I had a feel for how he played already—I just took it as a challenge and I wasn’t backing down.”
The Cardinal’s scoring and minutes per game leader went on to pace the team with 19 points with 9-10 shooting at the free-throw line.
The freshman point guard also finished with three assists and four turnovers.
“I didn’t want to back down (from Brown) he was gonna come at me and I was gonna go at him.” Turner said.
Majok had a solid performance, finishing with 17 points and 11 rebounds. Majok was called for a traveling violation with 3:24 left in the game while Toledo held onto a 70-68 lead as he attempted a running hook shot inside the paint.
“I made the same move like three times before, so I don’t know why they called it at that time.” Majok said.
Set apart from the dunk in the first half, Bond played a role in the game as well finishing with 12 points and grabbing six rebounds. He had the assignment of guarding Rian Pearson with the game in reach for the Cardinals.
Ball State was down 74-71with 37 seconds left before Toledo head coach Tod Kowalczyk called a timeout.
After the timeout, the ball ended in Pearson’s hands as he made a tough 12-foot turnaround jump shot with Bond close enough to nearly block it.
“That was thought out ahead of time,” Kowalczyk said. “Even if Juice is on the floor, we’re going to that play.”
Ball State now owns a 1-9 MAC record with four of their next six games at home. The Cardinals host the 12-10 Eastern Michigan Eagles on Wednesday, Feb. 12 for game two of their three game home stand.
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