Ball State University Athletics
Women's Basketball Wins 80-63 at Ohio
January 30, 2006 | Women's Basketball
In a key Mid-American Conference game for a pair of teams fighting for top positions in their respective divisions, Ball State and Ohio were prepared for a battle. The Cardinals, however, had more ammunition and used it to their advantage for an 80-63 victory Tuesday in Athens in the MAC/Fox Sports Game of the Week.
Ball State scored first on a bucket by Erica Cotton and, outside of an immediate answer from Ohio's Ciara Iglehart, never trailed in the first half. Neither team was particularly effective offensively until the deeper Cardinals used a 6-0 run, including successive jumpers by Cotton, Kelsey Corbin and Stephanie Douglas, to take a 19-16 with 8:41 left in the period.
The Bobcats, meanwhile, went cold, getting just one fast break layup from Lauren Revesz and a free throw from Quantana Ward over a six-plus minute span. BSU boosted its advantage to double digits at 24-14 with 7:04 on the clock after a 3-pointer from Cotton and a short jumper from Kiley Jarrett. Julie DeMuth's second trey of the game gave the Cardinals their largest lead of 29-16 at the 5:25 mark. After four-straight free throws by Becca Bajorek increased BSU's lead to 15 with a little over three minutes left, Ohio heated up for an 8-2 run to cut its deficit back down to single digits -- 37-28 -- with 1:16 on the clock. A Cotton jumper with one second left gave the Cardinals a 39-28 lead at the halfway mark.
Ball State converted 50 percent of its field goals in the first half, including 3-of-6 from beyond the arc. The Cardinals also made good on eight of nine free throw tries.
Ohio was 11-of-27 from the field for a .407 mark. The Bobcats, who were 0-of-4 from 3-point range, connected on 6-of-8 free throws.
Demuth opened the second half scoring Ball State's first six points. Ohio's Ciara Iglehart matched the six-point effort plus added a bucket by Chandra Myers to stay within nine points at the first media timeout. Six unanswered points, including four from Douglas, gave Ball State a 15-point lead of 51-36 with 13:07 on the clock. A stronger, quicker and deeper BSU squad built a 21-point advantage -- 62-41 -- on Douglas' fifth basket of the contest at the 10:07 mark. Ohio sliced its deficit to 12 points on a 9-0 run. A Bajorek layup ended a nearly three-minute BSU scoring drought and gave the Cardinals a 64-52 lead at the 7:30 mark.
Ohio got within nine points at 66-57, thanks to an old-fashioned 3-point play by Domenica Silva with 6:39 remaining. The play completed a run of 10 successive points for Silva. Ball State put the game out of reach with an 11-0 run to go up by 20 points at 79-59 with just under two minutes left.
DeMuth completed her seventh double-double of the season with a team-leading 18 points and 11 rebounds. Three additional players scored in double figures for the balanced Cardinals -- Cotton with 17 points, Douglas with 12 and Bajorek with 10, marking her first double-digit scoring total of the season. In all, BSU got 31 points from its bench. The Cardinals were .459 (28-of-61) from the field plus converted 86 percent (19-of-22) free throws.
"We had a great effort from start to finish tonight," BSU head coach Tracy Roller said. "We executed well offensively and played sound defense. I think this was the first time in a long time that we were able to handle the other team making a run, which was great to see. This was a big win for us during a week, where we are trying to separate ourselves in the league standings."
Ball State improves to 12-7 overall and 5-3 in the MAC, while Ohio drops to 7-12 and 4-4. BSU returns home to Muncie Saturday for a 1 p.m. matchup against Buffalo.
