Ball State went on the road to MAC (Mid-American Conference), leading Akron on Tuesday night. The Cardinals fell in the contest 73-81. Here are three takeaways from the matchup.
Energy from the jump
Coming into this matchup, some may have anticipated a sluggish game from the Cardinals because of Akron’s success in the conference thus far. However, Ball State put any of those perceptions to rest right from the opening tip. The energy from the visitors was visible, and they did not look daunted by the Zips by any means. It would have been easy for the red and white to look at the blue and golds’ record and performance in the MAC and shy away from the challenge, but it seemed that Ball State head coach Michael Lewis prepared his squad well for this game.
For the entirety of the first half, it was a back-and-forth affair, with each side trading blows. Neither side could gain much of an advantage, and Ball State hung around in the opening half, only trailing by two points heading into the locker room. Limiting offensive opportunities for the Zips and aggressively attacking the rim on offense allowed the Cardinals to keep things close.
Getting everyone involved
At times throughout this season, the starters for Ball State have carried the load offensively. With the Cardinals going on the road to MAC-leading Akron, they were going to need more offensive contributions than they’d been getting up to this point in the year. The usual suspects on offense for Ball State were able to get their own baskets, but to keep things close, it was going to need to be the pieces off the bench contributing.
Through the first half, the Cardinals got exactly that. Eight out of the ten players who logged minutes put up at least two points and, as a team, registered five assists as well. Players such as sophomore Mason Jones and sophomore transfer Joey Hart contributed early to help the red and white keep pace with the offense of the Zips.
Delaying the inevitable
Ball State showed a lot of fight throughout this game, and for the majority of it looked like they were going to have a chance to win. Between keeping pace offensively with the Zips and playing just enough defense, the deficit remained at four points for most of the second half. However, as the game clock kept dwindling the momentum, which had been swinging back and forth, slowly began to swing more and more to the home team as time went on.
Ball State started to struggle defensively, containing drives to the rim for the blue and gold. The struggles that had been masked by the offense thus far began to rear their ugly head to allow Akron to build a lead late. Putting together a full 40 minutes has been a struggle for the Cardinals all season and even though the red and white have made progress in that area, that struggles showed yet again during crunch time.
Contact David Moore via email at david.moore@bsu.edu or X @gingninj63
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