Ball State University Athletics
Skip Mills Scores 38; Cardinals Suffer MAC Tournament Loss
March 06, 2006 | Men's Basketball
The loss in the first round of the Mid-American Conference Tournament ends Ball State's season with a 10-18 overall record. Buffalo advances to the tournament quarterfinals with a 19-12 record.
"I think you see how Skip Mills has developed into a leader for us," said BSU head coach Tim Buckley. "I am proud of the way he has handled the entire season. To be honest, I don't think the first half cost us the game. I thought we recovered and made it a game. The second half was more like how this team has competed all year."
Mills' 38 points came just three days after he poured in a then career-high 34 in BSU's overtime win at Eastern Michigan. The junior scored 21 of BSU's 28 points in the first half and opened the second half with a pair of threes while playing the entire 40 minutes.
The performance was the first back-to-back 30-point effort from a Cardinal since Chris Willams in 2003 (44 at Central Michigan, 2/19/03 and 33 at Western Kentucky, 2/22/03).
"We didn't come out with the energy that we needed to in the first half," Mills said. "After halftime we came together as a team and started playing Ball State Basketball like we know we can, but it was a little too late."
Mills scored BSU's final 12 points in the first half to pull BSU within 44-28 at halftime. The scoring assault continued in the second half after back-to-back threes – the first from Mills and the second from Anthony Newell – had cut the deficit to just five points with 15 minutes on the clock.
A bucket from Mills with 11:32 remaining sliced the UB lead to 52-48, before back-to-back threes from the Bulls' Roderick Middleton stretched the margin back to 12 points at 60-48 with nine minutes left.
After a 62-50 Buffalo lead with 6:32 remaining, Mills converted a three-point play, before scores from D'Andre Peyton sparked a BSU run. Peyton finished with 11 points and three blocks.
Mills was fouled on a three-point field goal and sank all three free throws to make the score 66-63 with 4:18, but UB's Calvin Cage answered from the free throw line in the final three minutes to help Buffalo hold on for the win.
Maurice Acker, who earlier in the day was named the 2006 Mid-American Conference Freshman of the Year, drilled a three-point field goal with :32 left to again cut the deficit to three points, but as before Cage answered from the line to push the lead back to five points en route to the 80-72 final.
"Anyone who knows anything about basketball, knows how hard we battled and competed all year," Buckley added. "I am disappointed in the loss, but not in the effort."
Cage finished with 30 points, including a perfect nine-for-nine effort from the free throw line. Mario Jordan had 17 points and a game-high seven rebounds.
