Ball State University Athletics
Ball State University
8-2,0-0MAC
Davidson College
7-3,1-0Atlantic 10
Women’s Basketball Puts Up Hard Fight but Falls at Davidson
December 07, 2025 | Women's Basketball
DAVIDSON, N.C. - The Ball State women's basketball team (8-2) battled to the very end but couldn't catch the Wildcats (7-3), falling on the road by a score of 87-65 Sunday evening in John M. Belk Arena.
Statistically, both teams battled the boards with Davidson having the slight upper hand over Ball State, 33-32. Ball State, however, was unstoppable in the paint outscoring the Wildcats 38-26.
Bree Salenbien led the Cardinals once again offensively with 21 points and nine rebounds. Tessa Towers was the only other player to reach double figure scoring with 14 points.
Things weren't looking great at the start of today's contest for the Cardinals. Davidson outpaced Ball State 19-15 in the first quarter of play.
The Wildcats remained in control in the second stanza leading by as many as 10 points (34-24) with 3:55 remaining in the first half. A short run by the Cardinals, which was sparked by a jumper from Aniss Tagayi and then capped off by a hook shot from Towers, allowed BSU to come within five (37-32) of the Wildcats at intermission.
The Wildcats came out with six unanswered points to start the third period to make it a nine-point ball game (43-32). Tagayi broke the Cardinals' shooting woes with a layup at the 8:33 mark. Davidson went on to outscore Ball State 26-17 in the third frame, to take a commanding 63-49 lead into the final 10 minutes of action.
Davidson expanded their defense and continued its hot shooting hand in the final stanza. Ball State struggled to put points on the board to catch-up with the Wildcats' strong shooting in the end.
The Ball State women's basketball team will play on national television Wednesday when it travels to No. 21 Louisville for a 9 pm ET tipoff on ESPN.
