Following the longest road trip in Ball State history at nine straight games, the women's basketball team won its home opener Dec. 30 against an overmatched Chicago State squad, 71-48.
The Cardinals (6-4) continually pushed the tempo from the start by hitting freshman point guard Dana Collins on outlet passes for easy fastbreak points. Collins tallied eight of her nine assists in the first half.
"Watching Dana for a while was just amazing," head coach Tracy Roller said. "She just saw the floor so well and really hit her passes and led the break perfectly."
The Cardinals defense forced Chicago State (1-7) into poor shot selection, holding the visitors to 20 percent shooting in the first half on the way to a 19-point lead at halftime.
But just as easily as the Cardinals found things to be going their way in the first half, the second half produced a more sloppy style of play for the Cardinals as the team committed 14 of its 20 turnovers. It was the third straight game the Cardinals had more than 20 turnovers, and the only one of the three games the team won, losing to Valparaiso and Louisville.
"I'm disappointed in the number of turnovers we had," Roller said. "We need to find a way to push the ball up the court and still be able to take care of it."
Nonetheless, the overmatched Chicago State squad could barely make a difference, as the Cardinals opened the second half with a 14-3 run to go up by 30 points with 14 minutes to play. Chicago State eventually whittled the lead back to 22, but could get no closer.
"It was an ugly second half," head coach Tracy Roller said. "We came out in the first half and I felt we really dominated, but I felt like we stopped playing for a time in the second half."
Despite the ease of the win, Chicago State forward Kafayat Davies was able to find weaknesses in the Cardinals' defense occasionally, and wasted little time in exploiting them as she led Chicago State with 10 points and 10 rebounds.
"We did a pretty poor job of guarding in the post," Roller said. "We have to do a better job, because when we play teams like Northern Illinois and Kent State, they are going to kill us."
The game also marked the return of junior Johna Goff, who missed the Louisville game because of a concussion she suffered in an all-terrain vehicle accident during Christmas break. But she came back as if she hadn't missed a beat, scoring 16 points and hitting three 3-pointers.
"Johna brings a lot of motion to the game," senior Tamara Bowie said. "It is really what we missed down in Louisville. You could see it in practice, our energy level was so high, you could tell things weren't the same without her."
Bowie led all scorers with 19 points and pulled down 10 rebounds, notching her fifth double-double this season. Kate Endress notched her eighth double-figure scoring effort of the season with 17 points, while adding five assists, eight rebounds and two steals.
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