A Corvette sits in a gas station. It has no fuel in it.
Ball State women’s basketball head coach Brady Sallee said a Corvette without gas won’t run well on fumes and compared that to the Cardinals' performance tonight against Columbia.
“As hard as we played, we literally were running on fumes,” Sallee said.
The Cardinals fell to the Lions 69-62 and are now 5-2 on the season. Ball State wrapped up their Battle 4 Atlantis stint by going 1-2 overall and finished in sixth place.
Senior Lachelle Austin said it has been a tall task playing three basketball games in three days.
“Our bodies are going to wear out,” Austin said. “We’re not young anymore where we can go 3-4 AAU games at full speed.”
Senior Madelyn Bischoff knows it is difficult to play three games in three days, but also acknowledged that their season will look just like that come March. She said getting this experience sets the Cardinals up for the future when they will play quick turnaround games in the Mid-American Conference Tournament.
Bischoff wrapped up her Battle 4 Atlantis showing with 13 points and Austin finished with 15.
Ball State was leading the Lions heading into halftime, but an 18-0 run between the third and fourth quarter saw Columbia take a lead they never gave up.
Columbia head coach Megan Griffith said the Lions talk extensively about stop-score-stop, and felt Columbia did a great job of that to grow their lead in the third and fourth quarter.
Griffith said the Lions adjusted defenses to force the Ball State guards to be confused.
“Show some zone, show some zone-press, some man-press and we got their guards to think and we put the ball in other people’s hands,” Griffith said. “Defensively, I thought our game plan was great.”
Sallee said he felt Griffith had the Lions better prepared to play after halftime than he did. Ball State coughed up 12 turnovers in the second half with Columbia showing new defenses.
Sallee said the game against the Lions was the first time this season Ball State had real issues with turnovers. He also pointed at the two points off the bench.
Sallee said he plans on working with the bench so he can put them into a tight game with a March feel.
“We’ve got to get this crew ready because I can’t play these kids all these minutes for the next 35 games,” Sallee said. “We’ve got to develop the team maybe a little bit better than what we have up until now.”
Sallee said the Cardinals had limited time to prepare without senior Alex Richard, but will not have that as an excuse. He said it is his and the staff's job to make sure every player is ready to step up and go when their number is called and is not worried about doing that.
Even if the Cardinals went 1-2 in the Battle 4 Atlantis, Sallee said he is lucky to coach a great basketball team.
Sallee said he learned who exactly Ball State women’s basketball is in the opening games of this season. The Cardinals have faced Old Dominion, Memphis, the University of Northern Iowa, ranked University of North Carolina, Texas A&M and now Columbia.
“You do not play that kind of schedule and sit back and think, ‘Oh well, I wonder if we are any good,’” Sallee said. “We know how good we are, and I am the mad scientist who put this all together knowing it was not going to be easy.”
Contact Elijah Poe via email at elijah.poe@bsu.edu or on X @ElijahPoe4.
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