The Ball State men's basketball team dropped its eighth straight game Saturday, shooting under 40 percent from the field in a 72-61 loss to Toledo at Worthen Arena.
Ball State head coach James Whitford felt his players lacked focus and credited Toledo as being zoned in from the start.
“I thought [Toledo] was really locked in and jumped out on us in a huge way,” said Whitford. “We didn’t defend at all. I would put that first half as about as bad as we played this year.”
After seeing the Rockets jump out to a 17-9 advantage, Whitford called a timeout in an attempt to calm his team.
The Cardinals answered out of the timeout, with freshman Francis Kiapway hitting a 3-pointer and sophomore Franko House converting an old-fashioned three-point play to cut the deficit to five with 10 minutes remaining in the half.
Toledo capitalized on a four-minute scoring drought from Ball State, going on a 9-0 run to push the lead to 33-17.
Toledo shot 65 percent from the field in the first half, including hitting seven of its first 10 shots. Ball State finished the half shooting 44 percent, but turned the ball over 11 times.
Senior Matt Kamienniecki sat out the game due to a lower back injury.
Junior Jeremiah Davis broke out of his shooting slump early in the first half, hitting three of his first five shots, finishing the half with six points.
After a Julius Brown basket gave Toledo a 19-point lead, Ball State scored off back-to-back turnovers, bringing them within 13 with less than a minute in the first.
A Brown 3-pointer gave Toledo a 43-27 lead heading into intermission. Brown scored 16 of his game-high 24 points in the first half.
Both sides struggled offensively to open the second half, but a 3-pointer from Davis and a basket from junior Bo Calhoun cut the deficit to 10 at 49-39, with 12 minutes remaining. Davis finished the game with 12 points.
The Cardinals cut the lead to single digits after two free throw from House, but were unable to pressure the Rockets who continued to control the pace of the game throughout.
Ball State shot six for 32 from behind the arc.
House finished with 19 points, tying his career-high.
Ball State's defensive performance improved in the second half, but its offense failed to follow suit.
“We didn’t necessarily shoot the ball great,” said Whitford. “I thought in the second half we looked like ourselves against a really good team.”
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