To describe the game between Ball State and Marshall Tuesday night in Worthen Arena, perhaps one word best sums it all up - domination.
Outdoing Marshall in nearly every statistical category, the Cardinals knocked off the Mid-American Conference East Division's second place team, 96-75.
By the game's end, four Cardinals finished in double figures, with Matt McCollom, Cameron Echols and Chris Williams all scoring 20 or more points. Two Ball State players finished with double figures in rebounding and the Cards held a 12-point lead at the half and led by 26 in the second half.
After struggling in the area of rebounding against Miami in its last contest, Ball State headed into Tuesday's game placing importance on boxing out. By the game's end, the emphasis worked.
Echols finished the game with 15 boards to lead the game while freshman Kevin Cates followed closely, pulling down 14.
Echols' performance marked his first double-double since Jan. 11, as the junior college transfer also finished with 25 points.
"We decided that we need to go to him a little more than we have," Ball State coach Tim Buckley said of Echols. "Tonight I thought he did a really good job on the backboards and of blocking out."
Echols explained that some of his improved play came through emphasis in practice and the realization that his past three games were sub par.
"The last few games I haven't been playing to the best of my ability," Echols said. "I have been a little too passive. I haven't been crashing the boards and as you can see I had 15 boards tonight."
Cates' 14 rebounds marked a career -high for the freshman. Also, he led Ball State with five assists, another career -high.
"Kevin had at least 25 rebounds," Echols said of his teammate with a smile. "He's tough. Even though he might get hit hard he still has really good effort."
Buckley was especially pleased with Cates' effort in the post, saying the freshman "has come a long way."
"He's a team guy; that's his thing," Buckley said. "He's not concerned with how many points he has, he's more concerned with, 'is Ball State going to win?' He takes a lot of pride in rebounding and defending and the things we need him to do down low."
As a team Ball State out-rebounded the Thundering Herd 48-30 and 19-9 on the offensive backboards. It was that difference in offensive rebounding that Marshall coach Greg White said was the difference in the game.
"(Ball State) was flying to the rim," White said. "There was some contact and we would stand around looking for the foul. You have to go get the rebound; you can't expect to get those calls.
"They were great hustle plays by Ball State. We haven't been beaten on the glass like that all year."
Buckley also discussed his team's success in the rebounding game Tuesday night.
"We did a really good job of controlling the backboards tonight," Buckley said. "I thought we did a better job of blocking out and being conscious of it."
Also marking a career -high Tuesday was junior Robert Owens with 17 points in a team-high 37 minutes of play.
"It's been a long time since we've had a win like this," Owens said. "Coach has been drilling us every day to bring that effort and tonight we started that at the beginning and carried through the end of the game."
Aside from his 17 points, Owens played another role in keeping Marshall at bay by holding the MAC's fourth-leading scorer, Ronald Blackshear, well below his average of 20 points a game. Blackshear finished with 12 points Tuesday night.
"I am very hopeful that Owens has turned the corner," Buckley said. "I think he is sold out into buying into what we need for him to do. Because of that, I think he is becoming more and more of a vocal leader.
"He is producing and that is what we have needed from him for a long time," Buckley said.
The Cardinal win sets Ball State at 3-5 in conference play and 8-10 overall. The loss for Marshall drops the Thundering Herd to 5-3 in the MAC and 9-7 overall.
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