In the front row of Hinkle Fieldhouse, in seats seven through 12, the only thing that remained with over three minutes left in the game was some spilled popcorn and an empty Pepsi cup under the seats.
The Butler fans who had previously filled those seats had seen enough.
Their Butler Bulldogs dominated Ball State in every aspect of the game, leaving little to the imagination when it came to the game's outcome. By the game's final horn, Butler had posted a 71-45 win over the Cardinals.
Ball State trailed by as many as 30 and only led the contest in the opening minute after making it's first basket. In the first half, Ball State shot only 21 percent from the field.
"They played good defense," Ball State head coach Tim Buckley said about Butler. "They are a good defensive team so you have to execute well to try to get shots."
Buckley noted that his team's lack of offense spawned directly from the Cardinals' poor defensive effort.
"We don't make shots when we don't guard," he said. "It's a rhythm game, if you aren't playing in a rhythm defensively then you aren't going to be in a rhythm offensively."
With Ball State's sub-par defensive effort, Butler was able to shoot 52 percent from the field and 47 percent from behind the three point arc. The Bulldogs top scorer for the game was Duane Lightfoot, who finished with 16 points nailing six of his seven shots and four of his five free throws.
Ball State forward Cameron Echols explained how poorly the Cardinal defense fared against Butler's offense.
"For the last three days we have been watching game film," Echols said. "A lot of us just got confused on the defensive end when they started hitting shots on us."
It was the Bulldog defense, though, that made Butler coach Todd Lickliter so proud at the end of the game.
"In the end I think it was our guys willingness to defend, to defend as a team," Lickliter said. "We stayed committed to our game plan and to our strengths."
In the Cardinals first three games of the season, Chris Williams was the leading scorer for Ball State. Heading into Saturday's contest as the Mid-American Conference's leading scorer, Williams was averaging more than 27 points per contest.
The man responsible for holding Williams to only nine points and three-of-15 shooting was senior guard Brandon Miller.
"All year our team defense has been very good," Miller said. "Part of what we are trying to do is to force perimeter shots with the contest and I think we were able to do that tonight. We just wanted to keep them from getting close shots and that's what we did."
Ball State's best offensive player was someone who has not yet been in that spotlight -- Echols. The junior finished the game with 22 points. He also completed the double-double with 10 rebounds.
"I don't feel too much about it, we still got the 'L,'" Echols said of his scoring. "I don't care too much about my performance, I just wanted to win and that's something we didn't do tonight."
Even with team leader Theron Smith on the sidelines, Buckley attributed his team's 26 point loss to more than the absence of one player.
"It wasn't a lack of 'T,' it was lack of heart, lack of following the game plan, lack of passing the basketball and screening hard," Buckley said. "It was a lack of things we worked on and talked about.
"We went over how to defend their sets for three straight days."
By the end of the game, the only thing Buckley could say was that it was "time to go back, and start all over again."
"They beat us mentally. They beat us physically," he said. "They out-toughed us. They laughed at us."
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