WOMEN'S BASKETBALL: Size disadvantage catches up to Ball State

Team was pushed around in paint against Akron, throughout season.

Nathalie Fontaine drives towards the paint in order to score for Ball State. DN PHOTO COREY OHLENKAMP
Nathalie Fontaine drives towards the paint in order to score for Ball State. DN PHOTO COREY OHLENKAMP

CLEVELAND – Working through a season where Ball State often played bigger than its players actually were, it caught up to them against Akron in the MAC Semifinal, where they lost 70-61.

Ball State was outmuscled in the paint on both ends of the court.

 Junior forward Katie Murphy got the ball within a few feet on several occasions, but was blocked on many of her attempts.

Freshman Nathalie Fontaine encountered similar difficulties. Often faced with double teams in the paint, she was rejected several times near the basket and committed three turnovers.

On a day where Ball State tried to be physically bigger than they are, Akron was simply bigger.

Ball State coach Brady Sallee said that his team has been battling opponents while playing undersized all season.

“We’re not even bigger when we’re in practice,” Sallee said. “Give a lot of credit to those players for making themselves work in this system.”

That system included crashing the boards constantly and giving nonstop effort, knowing that they’d need to outhustle teams to get rebounds.

They certainly weren’t going to get them with their size.

Like much of the season, Akron threw the ball down into the low post, and let their forwards go to work against Fontaine and Murphy.

Although Fontaine is 6-foot-2, she’s skinny and often got pushed around. Murphy has a stronger build, but she’s just 6 feet and taller players can get over her often.

Murphy outhustled Akron on a number of Ball State missed shots in the second half, pulling down a few offensive rebounds, but Akron’s size continued to force difficult and contested shots down low.

Knowing that Ball State was playing with just seven players, Akron came into the game wanting to play up-tempo and exhaust Ball State’s interior players.

“It’s fun to run with us at the beginning, but at some point your legs are going to get tired,” Akron coach Jodi Kest said. “Those kids from Ball State gave everything they had … but we wanted to push as much as possible.”

For Murphy, she says that she’s spent her career guarding and practicing against bigger opponents, so today wasn’t much of a change.

Despite that experience, Murphy shot just 2-of-9, had three turnovers, and struggled with Akron’s bigger players down in the paint.

“I was playing against Emily Maggert, Amber Crago, Suzanne Grossnickle,” Murphy said. “I think just having to practice with them and compete with them my freshman and sophomore years just really prepared me for opponents who are just stronger and bigger than me.”

The average height for Ball State this season was just 5-foot-10. With that kind of size disadvantage, Sallee tried to get Fontaine isolated on mismatches as much as possible.

A tall and lanky player, Fontaine was often able to find mismatches against small opponents. Fontaine would easily go out over them for an uncontested layup or pull down a rebound.

Sallee said that once he realized that advantage, he tried to take advantage every time he saw a mismatch forming.

“She’s a load and a mismatch nightmare,” Sallee said. “That’s the way we used her a lot in the post and trying to force those mismatches and get her the ball where she can go to work.”

Despite being playing with a short bench and having little size all season, Sallee loved how his team bought into his system and the amount of effort they exerted each time they stepped on the court.

“I thought it was important this year to just put our stuff in and play the way we’re going to play,” Sallee said. “This team wraps their arms around it and ends up executing it really well.”

All season, Ball State has tried to make sure size wouldn’t be the difference between wins and losses.

On Friday, it was just too much to overcome.

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