Ball State University
21-9
No. 6 Eastern Michigan
21-10
Eastern Michigan Knocks Off Ball State in the MAC Quarterfinals, 67-53
March 10, 2016 | Women's Basketball
CLEVELAND, Ohio - The third-seeded Ball State women's basketball team suffered a 67-53 loss to No. 6 seed Eastern Michigan in the Mid-American Conference Tournament quarterfinals Wednesday night at Quicken Loans Arena.
With the loss, the Cardinals fall to 21-9 and await a possible bid into the Women's National Invitation Tournament. The WNIT field will be announced late Monday night.
This is the second straight season the Eagles (21-10) have knocked the Cardinals out of the MAC Tournament. The Eagles earned their way to tonight's quarterfinal after defeating Kent State in the first round Monday night by a score of 73-60. Eastern Michigan now advances to the semifinals to face No. 2 Central Michigan on Friday at 2:30 p.m.
The Cardinals started the game strong with an 8-0 run after back-to-back three-point baskets from Moriah Monaco and Carmen Grande. The scoring spree was capped off by a layup from Renee Bennett. However, Eastern Michigan battled back to within one point, 18-17, at the end of the first quarter.
A Cha Sweeney tip-in put Eastern Michigan in front, 21-20, and the Eagles would not trail the rest of the game. EMU outscored Ball State by nine points in the second quarter to take an eight-point lead, 32-24, into intermission.
Ball State opened the second half with an 11-4 run, highlighted by a Grande three-pointer, to cut the deficit to one (36-35) at the 5:29 mark. After that, Eastern Michigan responded with a 9-2 spurt to build its lead back up to eight (45-37) to end the third quarter.
In the fourth quarter, Ball State got to within five points on three occasions, but could get no closer. Moriah Monaco missed a three-pointer with 8:38 left that would have slashed the deficit back to two points.
Eastern Michigan put the game away with seven consecutive points to stretch the cushion to 57-45 with 5:18 remaining.
Nathalie Fontaine and Grande each tallied 14 points to lead Ball State.
The 53 points were the third fewest scored by Ball State this year. The Cardinals only shot 30.6 percent from the floor (19-of-62), their second lowest percentage this season.
For EMU, Cha Sweeney piled up 29 points, her second highest total of the season.
