A lack of effort will prove fatal when a team like Toledo, who has won six Mid-American Conference regular season championships in the past 12 years, visits Worthen Arena. That's what happened to the women's basketball team on Saturday as they fell to the Toledo Rockets 78-64.
"It was downright embarrassing," head coach Tracy Roller said. "Our effort was terrible, we stopped playing hard, and we turned it over because we didn't execute."
Ball State opened the game with two consecutive turnovers that led to two fast breaks. Toledo converted on only one of those, however, and when senior Julie Just hit a three-pointer it gave the Cardinals their first points and a 3-2 lead.
After falling down, 5-9 junior Kate Endress was able to get the Cardinals back in front by scoring four straight points and then earning an assist off a steal and pass to freshman Tina Bolte who converted a layup to give Ball State an 11-9 lead.
Toledo would complete a 7-0 run at the 13:12 mark, but the Cardinals would immediately follow that with their own 7-0 run to get back on top. From there the action was back and forth until under seven minutes remained in the half. In those final minutes Ball State allowed the Rockets to outscore them 17-5 and go into halftime with a 41-29 lead.
Endress led first half scoring with 15 points, while only four other Cardinals put points on the board.
Ball State came out after the half and was unable to chip away at their 12 point deficit at all. Instead the Rockets were able to build a larger lead. Toledo held a 24 point lead, their largest of the game, twice around the 12 minute mark.
"There's no excuse for that kind of effort," Endress said. "I just think we won two games, and we didn't play well in the first half. A team like Toledo made us pay for that."
Endress was the only Cardinal who scored in double figures with 24. Senior Jessica Reiter had the game high in rebounds with 16.
Senior Johna Goff said, "We are a very good team, but we're letting other teams dictate us this year and we're getting in holes and we're not fighting back."
Toledo brought a balanced attack with all of their starters scoring in double figures, including a double-double performance from Julie Hillis with the team high 14 points and 12 rebounds.
"When you have weaknesses, which all of our players do, and you play a great coach like Mark Elhen and a great team who's got tradition and is legendary, they're going to isolate your weaknesses," Roller said. "That's exactly what they did tonight."
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