VALPARAISO — The women's basketball team was unable tokeep their four-game win streak going after suffering an offensivelet down on Saturday against the Indiana State Sycamores in theHoosier State Classic. The Cardinals scored their fewest points andhad their lowest field goal percentage of the season in the 65-53loss.
"When we're struggling offensively, we've got to really crackdown on the defense, which isn't our strength right now," headcoach Tracy Roller said.
A strong full court press by the Sycamores kept Ball State offthe scoreboard in the early minutes of the game. In the firstminute and a half, the Cardinals had three turnovers and wereunable to get a shot off until the 18:04 mark. Ball State continuedto get shots from there, but after missing seven shots, their firstpoints came from freshman Becca Bajorek at the 14:42 mark. IndianaState, who also struggled offensively, had scored only six pointsby then.
The Cardinals got within four at the 11:29 mark, but would gowithout a basket for almost five minutes, allowing the Sycamores togo on an 8-0 run making the score 6-19. From there the offense forboth teams picked up a little and in the final 1:16 of the firsthalf, Ball State was able to get back in the game, going intohalftime down 29-24.
Both teams, who average above 79 points per game, shot poorly inthe first half. Indiana State's poor shooting of only 30 percentfrom the floor was one reason the Cardinals were able to stay inthe game after they shot only 32 percent from the floor. KateEndress led Ball State's first-half scoring with seven points,while one other player had three and seven others had two.
The second half started well for the Cardinals. Behind Endress'ssix points in the opening minutes, they were able to get withinthree points twice. However, after another Ball State scoringdrought the Sycamores went on a 10-0 run to go up 47-32.
The Sycamores would continue to lead by no less than 14 untilthere was 7:37 left in the game. The Cardinals then chipped away atthe lead to get it down to 50-57 off of a Dana Collinsthree-pointer with 4:54 left. Four straight turnovers by theCardinals spelled defeat for them, scoring only three more pointsin the final 41 seconds.
"Our consistency right now is just not there," Roller said afterthe game.
Endress led Ball State as the only scorer in double figures with18, she also had the game-high nine rebounds. Three others wereclose to double figures: sophomore Raechelle Hampton had nine,freshman Kelsey Corbin had eight and Collins had seven. SeniorJohna Goff was unable to put any points up for the Cardinals.
"We usually have two players, three players in double figures,when we don't it's difficult for us to win," Roller said.
Both teams were held to 33 percent shooting from the floor. BallState was worse from behind the arch, converting only one three for6 percent. The Cardinals also had 11 turnovers in each half, whichdidn't help their efforts. Roller thought her team did have momentswhen their defense was good, especially in the first half.
"We kept them (23 points) under their average, we only (let themhave) three players in double figures," Roller said. "They're agreat team, we did good things defensively, but when we don'tscore, we really struggle."
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