Ball State Women’s Basketball (4-3, 0-0 MAC) took a break from the cold this week and traveled down south to the Bahamas for the Hoopfest Tournament, joined by the likes of Wisconsin, Arkansas, Fordham, and Lehigh. The Cardinals went 1-1 on the tournament, grabbing a buzzer-beater win over the Mountain Hawks and falling short to the Badgers.
Although the Cardinals tallied 22 turnovers and only two players with double-digit points, the Cardinals still came out with a 2-point victory thanks to efforts on the rebounding end. Not only did they post 47 total rebounds on the day, but redshirt freshman guard Anna Clephane’s last-second put-back put the Cardinals on top.
After two made free throws by Lehigh, the Cardinals had six seconds with the ball at the end of the contest. Coming out of the timeout, freshman guard Estel Puiggros missed from deep. But Clephane was there to pick up the scraps, throwing it up, off the glass and in to seal the win for the Cardinals with a score of 54-52.
Junior forward Oshlynn Brown was the leader of the rebounding efforts with eight, followed by Puiggros and freshman forward Annie Rauch, who each pulled down six. Graduate student Jasmin Samz posted a team-high 11 points, while sophomore forward Thelma Dis Agustsdottir had 10 with two buckets from deep.
Turnovers became a problem of the past when the Cardinals took on the Badgers, where they tallied only 13. Despite the improvement in turnovers and Brown’s 18 points, rebounding on the offensive end seemed to plague the Cardinals, grabbing only seven to the Badgers’ 14.
Due to the struggles with rebounding, the Cardinals registered just four to the Badgers’ 17 second chance points, which aided them in the 67-56 victory.
Free throws hurt the Cardinals in game two, as well. Not only did they only shoot 13, but only six were made, coming out to just over 46 percent from the charity stripe.
Brown led the team in points and rebounds, while Agustsdottir added 11 and Samz and Clephane posted 10 apiece.
The Cardinals have just five non-conference matchups left before taking on the Mid-American Conference in January. The next contest will bring the team back to Worthen to take on Western Kentucky on Dec. 7.
Contact Gabi Glass with any comments at grglass@bsu.edu or on Twitter @gabiglassbsu.
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