Ball State University
12-5 (3-1MAC)
Miami (OH)
6-11 (0-4MAC)
Defense Keys Men's Hoops Comeback versus Miami
January 16, 2016 | Men's Basketball
MUNCIE, Ind. -- It was never pretty, and it certainly was not comfortable. But in the end, it was another win for the Ball State men's basketball team.
The Cardinals overcame their worst shooting performance since the season opener and stormed back from a 16-point deficit Saturday to beat Miami at Worthen Arena. A driving bucket from Jeremiah Davis with 1.8 seconds left gave Ball State a 48-46, grind-it-out win.
The Cardinals struggled all game, especially the first 20 minutes, against a Miami team that uncharacteristically stuck with man-to-man defense. But Ball State (12-5, 3-1 Mid-American Conference) hung its hat on the defensive end of the floor and limited the RedHawks to only 18 second-half points after scoring only 17 themselves in the first half.
"Offense can come and go, but there has to be one constant for your team, and that's your defense," Ball State coach James Whitford said. "We played as bad in the first half as I feel like we've played all year. I do think Miami played a good half, and they had something to do with it. With that being said, we had a lot to do with it, too.
"Despite that, in the second half, when the game was very hard for us on the offensive end, we defended at a great rate. We won that game simply because they couldn't score for long enough, eventually our offense crept in and gave us a lead."
Jeremie Tyler and Ryan Weber led Ball State with 10 points each, and both made key plays down the stretch. Tyler scored seven consecutive points to trim the Miami lead to 40-39 with 4:45 to play. Two minutes later Weber drilled a 3-pointer from the wing to give the Cardinals their first lead of the game at 44-43.
Ball State led by as many as three in the closing minutes before Miami (6-11, 0-4 MAC) came back to tie the game at 46 on a layup from Eric Washington with 28 seconds to play.
But Ball State had the last shot. The Cardinals ran the clock down, and Davis drove the left side of the lane and scooped a shot high off the backboard and in. A full court heave from Miami came up short as Ball State improved to 9-1 at home this season.
The Cardinals held Miami to just two field goals over the final 11 minutes of the game. They did a better job down the stretch containing Washington, who scored a game-high 26 points.
In the first half, it was Ball State that couldn't score. The Cardinals shot 29 percent before the break (36 percent for the game) and looked out of sorts at times. They trailed 28-17 at halftime and saw Miami extend its lead to 36-20 in the opening minutes of the second half.
"Technically, there were some things they were doing that were making it hard on us that we didn't adjust to well," Whitford said. "Miami is a different team. They can press you; they can play 1-3-1; they've played a lot of zone. We didn't expect them to play 40 minutes of man. It's not consistent with who they've been, and that caught us off guard."
Ball State's offense was in stark contrast to its first three MAC games, which saw the team shoot the ball at 48 percent. But the defense kept the Cardinals in the game long enough to figure it out, and a good home crowd gained energy as they closed the gap throughout the second half.
The win was the fifth in the past six games for the Cardinals, who will play in front of a home crowd again Tuesday. Kent State visits Worthen Arena for a 7 p.m. tip.
Team Stats
Game Leaders
Players Mentioned
