Ypsilanti, Mich. -- In the end, it was the very thing that head coach Tim Buckley has preached all season long -- defense.
With 2.6 seconds remaining in the game, with Ball State holding a one point lead, Eastern Michigan's Michael Ross inbounded the ball to teammate Markus Austin.
After one dribble, Austin left the ground behind the three point line attempting to stop Ball State from winning it's first road game.
His attempt fell short and Ball State marked it's first true road game of the season setting it's conference record at 2-4, marking an overall record of 7-9. The Cardinal win, 91-90 also ended an Eastern Michigan home winning streak of seven games.
"We just tried to keep them in front of us," Buckley said of the final play. "We got hung up on a screen and fortunately for us, Austin missed the shot because I thought he had a pretty good look."
Leading the Cardinals for the night was senior Chris Williams who returned to his norm hitting 9-of-17 shots from the field finishing the game with 27 points. Perhaps his two biggest points of the night however came with 21.8 seconds remaining in the game. Eastern sent Williams to the free throw line with the Cardinals trailing by one. Williams hit both shots setting the score to what would later become the final.
"I practice on my free throws a lot," Williams said. "I'm a senior. They at least depend on me to hit free throws out there. I just stepped up to the line and just knocked them down."
For the second game in a row, sophomore Matt McCollom finished the contest with over 20 points aiding Ball State with 22 against Eastern Tuesday night. McCollom's total came after going scoreless in the first half after picking up two quick personal fouls.
"Matt for the most part was non existent in the first half with those two quick fouls," Buckley said. "He just kept his head together and I thought at half time he got himself together. Just like the Toledo game he told the guys 'we are going to win tonight and I'm going to help us do it.'"
Williams spoke of McCollom's second half effort after the game.
"It was a tough game tonight," Williams said. "Matt wasn't playing well in the first half and he came back strong for us in the second half. But we just stuck together as a team, this was a team effort."
Another player who came to the Cardinals' aid Tuesday night was Robert Owens. Owens finished the game with a career-high 14 points.
"I thought that Chris (Williams) and Matt (McCollom) had that warrior mentality on Saturday (against Toledo)," Buckley said. "I thought they recruited one more guy. Today that was Owens. He was in that group that kept saying 'we're winning today,' and 'let's go get this stop.'"
Williams and McCollom were not the only players to score over 20 points on Tuesday. Eastern had four players in double figures with Austin tallying 25 points and Ryan Prillman aiding a game-high 28 points in the Eagles' loss.
Buckley attributed some of Prillman's success to the fact that Cardinal Kevin Cates fouled out with 13 minutes remaining in the contest.
"When Cates fouled out early it really narrowed our rotation when it came to having guys to go battle Prillman," Buckley said. "I think he is an excellent post player but at the same time I thought our guys made it easy for him by giving him deep post position."
Eastern finished the contest shooting 49 percent from the field. Despite his team's first road win, Buckley wasn't pleased with his team's defensive effort as a whole Tuesday night.
"We were very poor defensively," Buckley said. "Eastern pretty much got whatever they wanted. We are very fortunate to get a win with a team that shot 20 more free throws than we did."
Ball State finished shooting 18 free throws on the night while the Eagles visited the line 38 times.
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