Occasionally, basketball teams will start a game off slowly. Unfortunately for the Bulls, they were unable to come back from their slow start in a game that was considered an easy win against a sub-par team.
The Ball State Cardinals (4-19, 3-8 Mid-American Conference) started the game off with a 19-9 lead and never looked back, defeating the Bulls (8-15, 2-9 MAC) 76-67. The win snapped the Cardinals' six-game losing streak while also stopping the Bulls two-game winning streak.
Peyton Stovall led the Cardinals with 22 points. Anthony Newell had a career night for the Cardinals, scoring 14 points while notching a career-high 15 rebounds and six assists.
For the Bulls, sophomore forward Calvin Betts had 12 points and grabbed six rebounds. Sophomore forward Max Boudreau and junior Andy Robinson also notched double-digit point totals, scoring 11 and 10 points respectively.
Head coach Reggie Witherspoon was visibly upset about the poor effort from his team.
"Ball State outworked us, out-hustled us. They deserved to win; we didn't deserve to win. We played flat," Witherspoon said. "...I'm angry about it. I don't know what it was. We didn't have enough energy tonight."
Ball State did not have a player that was taller than 6-foot-6, and yet out-rebounded the Bulls 32-29. The Cardinals used their quickness to their advantage as they scored on numerous fast break opportunities.
"They're a good team. They're a little undersized, but they play hard, and that always gives you a chance," Witherspoon said of the Cardinals. "In this league, everybody has a chance on every night. Almost all of the games between MAC teams have been very close."
The Bulls fell behind early, finding themselves down by 11 at halftime. They were energetic coming out of the locker room, going on an 8-0 run early in the second half to close the gap to three points. From that point, the Cardinals went on a 17-4 run to gain their largest lead, 57-41, with 12:39 left.
Buffalo would make a couple runs to climb back into the game, as Betts jumper made the game 59-52 with 7:18 left in the game. Ball State answered by making their next five shots to regain a double-digit lead.
Near the end of the game, Robinson hit a three-pointer to cut the lead to six points with 59 seconds left. They would not come closer than that.
Betts saw that the team was out of it. He was cognizant that they came out flat for this game.
"You can tell as a player if you're playing flat. We started off the second half like we usually do, but we weren't able to sustain that momentum," he said. "It's hard to explain. We didn't have any energy."
Witherspoon believed he got his team ready to run with the Cardinals.
"We told the players that (the Cardinals) were going to get the ball out quick and they were going to run. They play a small lineup of guys that really run hard and fast. We didn't look like we were able to keep up with the pace," he said. "We looked like we fell asleep watching the game at times."
Ball State continuously hit big shots to make sure Buffalo would not challenge the Cardinals for the lead. Robinson believed that battling back from double-digits deficits throughout the game wore the team out.
"It's very hard to come back from a double-digit deficit. You have to fight back to get back into the game. In the second half, we did that, but they started to pull away again and got another double digit lead," Robinson said. "We then stopped going hard, and we fell back and started taking punches from them."
Buffalo will look to regain their winning ways when they take on the Miami (OH) RedHawks on Saturday. Tip-off is 7 p.m. at Alumni Arena.
Photo: Breadchastick / Wikimedia Commons
