After starting the game with only three turnovers in the first eight minutes and holding a lead most of that time, the Ball State women's basketball team let the turnover bug hit them.
They ended the game with 23 turnovers that contributed to a 100-83 loss to the Eastern Michigan Eagles.
"It was a must win game for Eastern, so I was really excited to see how our team handled it, and boy we didn't handle it at all," head coach Tracy Roller said. "The second half we just didn't compete."
The Cardinals opened the game with scoring from three players to take a quick 9-3 lead. At the 12:02 mark, Eastern Michigan was able to take a 19-17 lead that it held for the rest of the game with the exception of one tie.
The Eagles were able to build on their lead, but Ball State always had an answer, chipping their lead back down to under five. With 2:49 remaining in the first half, the Eagles got their first double-digit lead at 38-48, but the Cardinals closed out the half with an 8-0 run in which junior Kate Endress scored six.
Endress led the first-half effort with 15 points and seven rebounds. Both teams shot well from the field with the Cardinals shooting 51 percent and the Eagles shooting 52 percent. The story, however, was Eastern's points from behind the arch. They were an almost perfect 6-for-7 in the first half.
Endress came out after the break and got a layup to tie the game, but the Cardinals were not able to take the lead. With 14 minutes left in the second half, the Eagles got their second double-digit lead of the game with a 3-pointer from Sarah Vanmetre. This time they did a better job of keeping it.
They held a 24-point lead, their largest of the game, with 3:49 remaining. The Cardinals were able to get it under 20 but never close enough for a comeback.
The Cardinals had good offensive production, especially from Endress who led the team with 23 points and 11 rebounds. Senior Johna Goff had 15 points while freshman Kelsey Corbin pitched in 10, tying a career-high.
"Offense isn't our problem," Endress said. "Clearly I'm not happy with the way I played defense tonight and the way I turned the ball over."
The Cardinals defense let the Eagles get offensive production from six players who scored in double digits. Junior Ryan Coleman led the team with 19 points, followed by three who had 17. One of those three included Vanmetre who had a double-double with 11 rebounds.
"They're just really, really tough to guard," Roller said about the Eagles. "It just caused some matchup problems for us."
"We've got to get a lot stronger and tougher, we're just letting teams walk all over us, and we're not doing anything about it," Goff said.
Eastern finished the game with 10 3-pointers and also had 58 points in the paint which helped send the Cardinals to 9-8 overall and 4-2 in the Mid-American Conference.
"(There's) no time to get excited about wins and no time to think about losses," Roller said. "You've just got to move on."
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