Ball State University Athletics
Ball State University
18-10 (9-6MAC)
Toledo
17-11 (8-7MAC)
Men's Hoops Falls at Toledo, Stays atop MAC West
February 23, 2016 | Men's Basketball
TOLEDO, Ohio -- The Ball State men's basketball team saw winning streaks of three games, both overall and on the road, snapped Tuesday with a 77-67 loss at Toledo.
Ryan Weber led the Cardinals with 18 points on 6-for-8 shooting from 3-point range, while Bo Calhoun and Francis Kiapway scored 10 points each.
Ball State (18-10, 9-6 Mid-American Conference) continues to lead the MAC West Division, one game ahead of Toledo and Central Michigan. In the overall league standings, the Cardinals are part of a four-way tie for the second-best record behind Akron's 10-5 mark.
For Ball State coach James Whitford, Toledo's ability to score seemingly at will in the first half was the difference. The Rockets shot 62 percent from the floor, and their 47 points were the most allowed by Ball State in a half all season.
The Cardinals shot 56 percent in their own right, but a 9-0 Toledo run to close the half broke open a back-and-forth game, and the Rockets took a 47-38 lead into the break.
"I thought Toledo played a great game," Whitford said. "They scored the ball as well in the first half as anyone has scored the ball against us all year. To me, it was our inability to get stops tonight that cost us the game."
Toledo (17-11, 8-7 MAC) also took remarkable care of the ball, turning it over just once in the first half and six times for the game to Ball State's 14. The Rockets outscored the Cardinals 20-4 in points off turnovers.
"Fourteen turnovers is close to our average, which is too high," Whitford said. "But it was the fact that they had one turnover at halftime. Their offensive numbers in the first half were so good, it was beyond scary."
Nathan Boothe led Toledo with 23 points and eight rebounds, while Nate Navigato drained 5 of 8 3-pointers on his way to 19 points. Ball State struggled to defend Boothe after Calhoun, who drew the early defensive assignment on him, picked up two fouls in the game's first four minutes.
Despite Toledo's blistering shooting, Ball State found itself down just one at 47-46 after an early second-half run that included two Calhoun 3-pointers.
But Toledo responded with a 12-0 spurt, and Ball State struggled to find its offensive rhythm as it tried to come back again. The Rockets' lead remained in double digits for most of the final 15 minutes.
"I thought for an eight- or nine-minute stretch, we really lost patience on offense," Whitford said. "We had a lot of one- or two-pass, quick jump shots that I thought hurt us. We needed to show more poise on the offensive end. But we actually defended at a much higher level in the second half."
Weber scored 15 of his points in the first half, including four 3's in the first eight minutes. He finished with a career-high six treys as he busted out of a shooting slump. The junior was 9 for 42 (21.4 percent) from 3-point range over the past nine games after shooting better than 45 percent through the first half of the season.
"Ryan has been practicing the right way, and I knew it was going to come back," Whitford said. "I thought he played a good game tonight. He just has to keep taking shots. Sometimes you make them all like he and Nate Navigato did tonight, and sometimes you have a tough shooting night. It's great to see Ryan's stroke come back to him."
Sean Sellers came off the bench to score nine points and grab six rebounds, and Franko House added eight points and six boards.
Tuesday marked Ball State's first loss of the season against a MAC West Division team as Toledo earned a split of the season series. The Cardinals have three regular season games remaining, two at home, all against divisional opponents.
Ball State returns to Worthen Arena to host Eastern Michigan at 2 p.m. Saturday.
