TOLEDO, Ohio -- Two last-minute leads, two potential victories that slipped away.
Three BSU turnovers in final 1:15 and a quartet of Keith Triplett free throws were the Cardinals demise in a 66-63 nailbiter at Savage Hall. The lose comes four days after Anthony Kann's tip-in three-point play eventually led to Ball State's loss at Western.
With a win, Ball State (5-3 Mid-American Conference, 8-8 overall) would have staked out second place in the West Division.
Junior guard Dennis Trammell missed the game due to strep throat, leaving Tim Buckley's team without it's leading scorer and an eight-man rotation. Given those handicaps, Buckley was pleased with his team's comeback from a 59-51 deficit with 6:48 to go.
"We didn't make very good decisions, and that's something we have to keep getting better at," Buckley said. "But I'm very proud of this team. We had no business coming in here and playing like that, as shorthanded as we were.
"It says a lot about their character and the kind of people they are, and I'm really proud of them."
Matt McCollom scored Ball State's last five points -- two free throws to tie the game, then a 3-pointer at the top of the key -- to put the Cards up 63-60 with 3:42 remaining. But after Allen Pinson's fourth block led to Justin Ingram's driving basket for the Rockets, McCollom and Stovall had errant passes when the they were trying to protect the lead.
After McCollom's miscue, Triplett drew a foul on BSU's Skip Mills on the wing, then calmly sank two free throws with 13.3 seconds remaining. Triplett would lead all scorers with 26 points, including 10 in the game's first four minutes, and paced the Rockets with seven rebounds.
Ball State was forced to inbound the ball from the baseline with 5.1 seconds left. The 6-2 Ingram tipped away McCollom's lob to Robert Owens and Triplett secured the ball and made two more foul shots.
"We just didn't convert on the last few plays like we should have, and I'll take a lot of the blame for that," McCollom said. "I think everybody in that lockerroom knows we gave it everything we had tonight. There's just times we didn't execute right and that cost us the ball game."
Michael Bennett was able to tip a long inbound to pass to Mills, but the freshman's 3-point attempt from the corner was long.
"Down the stretch, I was really happy with our defense, because we haven't gotten that too much," Toledo coach Stan Joplin said. Joplin's team (8-2 MAC, 14-4 overall) stayed in second behind Western.
"We were calling out (the lob) from the bench and Justin just made the right play."
With Trammell out, Mills started for the third time this season, but making up for the captain's absence was a team effort.
"They had to be who they were to the best of who they are, and play within themselves," Buckley said, "and I thought they did a really good job of that. We just asked them to be 10 percent better than what they normally are."
Toledo had Ball State on the ropes when Sammy Villegas' 3-pointer produced the 59-51 advantage. But the Cards quickly countered with a rare 5-point play, as Mills drained a trey and Cameron Echols was fouled by Pinson and followed with two free throws at the 6:26 mark.
A driving bucket by Stovall brought the Cards within 60-58 before McCollom's brief heroics, but BSU failed to score on its last seven possessions.
Echols led Ball State with his 13 points and seven rebounds. McCollom added 12 points and Stovall 11, with Mills (seven rebounds) and Terrance Chapman (six) chipping in nine apiece.
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