The Ball State Cardinals defeated the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers 67-59 Sunday afternoon behind 16 points from junior Ally Becki. With the win, Ball State is now 2-0 coming off of a loss
With one of their key starters down due to injury, the Cardinals had to earn the win against a Western Kentucky team that wouldn’t go away.
Replacing Bischoff’s production
Junior Madelyn Bischoff rolled her ankle Wednesday against UConn and was unable to participate in Sunday’s game. It’s hard for just one person to replace Bischoff’s 53 percent shooting from three-point land, so Ball State had multiple players pitch in early on.
After only scoring five points and shooting 2-of-10 from the field last time out, Becki came out assertive. Early in the quarter, she made a 3-pointer off of a junior Nyla Hampton assist to give the Cardinals a 4-1 lead. Just over a minute later, she knocked in another off of a Hampton assist. Her third of the first period came from the left corner off of a skip pass from junior Marie Kiefer and got her up to nine points.
Senior Estel Puiggros started in place of Bischoff. She also had a 3-pointer off of a Hampton assist and added another after rejecting a screen on the left wing with a behind-the-back move and pulling up from deep to give the Cardinals a 10-point lead with three minutes remaining in the first quarter.
With around four minutes left in the opening period, Hampton set up a wide-open Kiefer three in the left corner that she knocked down. Hampton assisted on four of the six Ball State made 3-pointers, giving them a 20-12 lead after the first 10 minutes of play.
Hampton finished the game with nine assists, while Kiefer added two more 3-pointers and Puiggros added another. Becki, Kiefer and Puigross all put up double-digit points.
Defense grinds it out in 2nd quarter
It’s extremely tough to contain offenses like Notre Dame in UConn as they are both AP Top 25 teams. Ball State let up 90 to both of those teams. In all of their other games, they were holding opponents to just under 64 points per game. Head coach Brady Sallee has said throughout this season that defense can be his teams’ calling card. In the second quarter, it was just that.
The offense wasn’t as efficient in the second period as it was in the first. Ball State didn’t hit a single 3-pointer in the quarter. While they only scored 12 points in the quarter, they never let the Hilltoppers cut into the deficit.
A layup by Western Kentucky sophomore Josie Gilven trimmed the Cardinal lead to 24-20 with 6:41 left in the quarter. The Hilltoppers wouldn’t score again for another three minutes. Within that time frame, three different Ball State players converted on layups to get the lead back up to ten.
The last Western Kentucky bucket in the first half came with 3:10 left. They had five possessions in the last three minutes and, thanks to steals by Becki and Hampton, three of those possessions ended in turnovers. The Cardinals kept their lead up to double digits at the half.
Richard and Kiefer big buckets
Despite being down as many as 17 early in the third quarter, Western Kentucky trailed by just seven with over three minutes to play. Puigross took a left-wing three and missed. Underneath, junior Alex Richard battled for the rebound and came up with it. She turned over her left shoulder and layed it up and in to push the lead back up to nine.
After the Hilltoppers converted on a pair of free throws, the ensuing possession was another big one. Puigross once again received the ball on the left wing and could have taken another 3-pointer. Instead, she saw Kiefer on the left block with a fantastic post position. Using the great entry pass Puigross threw, Kiefer took the ball and powered it through the basket off the glass with 2:19 to play.
Richard added a pair of free throws with a minute left to put the game out of reach and gave the Cardinals the win.
Ball State will have over a week off and will return to action Dec. 19 against the Pittsburgh Panthers in the Sun Coast Challenge in Tampa, Florida, at noon.
Contact Caleb Zuver via email at cmzuver@bsu.edu or on X @zuves35.
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