Ball State University Athletics
Cardinals Suffer New Year's Eve Setback To Indiana
December 31, 2005 | Men's Basketball
The shot thrilled the crowd but was not enough to help Ball State over come a hot-shooting Indiana team in an 80-56 New Year's Eve loss in front of a packed house at Worthen Arena.
"It was weird that shot would go in out of all the shots I took," said Mills, who went 3-for-14 from the floor. "I needed other shots to go in more than that one."
Mills led the Cardinals with 16 points, one of three Ball State players in double figures. He went to the free throw line 10 times and made nine attempts. Mills has scored in double figures in every game this season and in 16 games in a row dating back to last season.
"I'm proud of Skip," Ball State coach Tim Buckley said. "It's been tough for him having to shoulder the burden without Peyton (Stovall). He came into the season being Robin and now he's Batman."
Mills tried to keep Ball State close in the second half. His jumper with 15:48 to play cut Indiana's 15-point halftime lead to 12 points, the closest the Cardinals had been since the 3:09 mark of the first half.
But Indiana answered with a 14-3 run to take a commanding 64-41 lead. The Hoosiers' Marshall Strickland connected on three 3-pointers during the stretch. Strickland scored all 18 of his points as Indiana pulled away in the second half.
Robert Vaden led the Hoosiers with 22 points. Vaden made eight of his 11 field goal attempts, including 6-of-6 3-pointers. He also had six assists.
"We talked about (Vaden) making plays," Indiana coach Mike Davis said. "It's tough for anyone to guard him because he can shoot the basketball. He has as high a basketball IQ as anyone on our team."
Ball State played well early. After a back-and-forth start to the first half, the Cardinals took a 20-18 lead on a Charles Bass basket at the 7:13 mark.
But Ball State went cold from the floor over the next four minutes as Indiana put together an 18-2 run to take a 38-24 lead. The Cardinals trailed by 18 before Mills' buzzer beater sent Ball State to the locker room with a 44-29 deficit.
"The team for the most part came out and played pretty well for the first six or seven minutes of the game," said Bass, who finished with 12 points. "After that, we just couldn't make shots, and they were making shots."
Indiana shot 53 percent from the floor compared to Ball State's 34 percent, and the Hoosiers made 60 percent of their 3-pointers.
D'Andre Peyton finished as the Cardinals' final double figure scorer with 10 points. Freshman guard Maurice Acker scored eight points.
Ball State (4-4) returns to action Wednesday with a 7 p.m. home contest against Akron.
