Seeing head coach Tracy Roller standing on the sideline shouting and kicking up a storm is no strange occurrence for the women's basketball team. But last night, in the team's final exhibition game, Roller took her game to a new level in an attempt to break her team from its apathetic play against the Reebok Lady Stars.
"I was really disappointed in our intensity and effort," Roller said. "I really don't think we played very hard tonight, and at times, I got on them for it."
The Cardinals jumped out to an early lead on its way to a 88-70 victory, but the margin of the win was not indicative of how close the game was. At halftime, the Cardinals held what seemed to be a comfortable 12-point advantage. But coming out of the locker room, the Cards managed only five points in the first six minutes, allowing Reebok to close the gap to four.
Continuing her vocal campaign of motivating her team, At times, Roller could be easily heard over the cheers from the crowd. Finally, with only six minutes remaining, the team went on a 12-3 run to put the game out of reach of the Lady Stars.
Roller said she wanted to see how the team would be able to handle the rebounding of the physically dominant Reebok team. Edging the Lady Stars 54-49 in boards, Roller stood shell shocked at the number of rebounds her team has put up in its two exhibition games.
While senior Tamara Bowie led the game with 14 boards, Roller gave the most credit to freshman Raechelle Hampton and her eight rebounds in 17 minutes of play.
"I though Raechelle was the key," Roller said. "I don't know how many she had at halftime, but I think she really got key rebounds at the end of the game when we really needed them."
In her first game in Worthen Arena playing for a team besides Ball State, alumna Shala Crook struggled with only five points and two assists. But for Crook's former high school teammate and Ball State standout, Bowie said she got all the bragging rights between the two of them.
"You can say that," Bowie said. "As soon as we get home, I going to let her know."
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