Ball State coach Tim Buckley said that Detroit came into Worthen Arena on a mission.
Consider the mission accomplished, with little resistance from the Cardinals.
Ball State scored just 16 second-half points and watched the Titans shoot 59 percent, turning a first-half battle into a 70-49 rout.
The Cardinals (10-13) shot just 25 percent (4 of 16) in the second half and 35.6 overall, leading to their lowest point total of the season. They lost 64-50 at Wright State on Dec. 6.
"They outplayed us in every phase of the game," Buckley said of the Titans, who won their sixth straight and improved to 15-10. "(It was) lack of pride, not lack of shooting. Lack of pride, lack of effort. We gave up 60 percent in our own building."
Ball State shot well enough to tie the game at 19 with a 10-2 run capped by Matt McCollom's layup -- the Cards' only fast-break points of the afternoon. The Cards also forged ties at 21, 23, 25 and 31. But with the shot clock winding down in the final minute, Detroit's Jimmy Twyman banked in a 27-foot 3-pointer with nine seconds left, putting the Titans up 38-33.
They carried that momentum into the second half, using a 9-3 run to move ahead 47-36.
Elijah Warren and James Thues drained 3-pointers, and Rulon Harris zipped passes underneath to Willie Wallace and Ryvon Covile, producing a layup, dunk and a 59-43 lead with 8:46 to go.
Terrance Chapman's free throw 26 seconds later brought Ball State as close as it would get.
"I thought other than the long shot (at the end of the half), we got great looks," Detroit coach Perry Watson said. "We made that extra pass to the guy with a better shot than the guy with the ball. We played off our inside game, and I think that leads to better shooting percentages when you play off your inside and make that extra pass. We've got the ability to shoot the basketball when we move it like that."
While the Titans hit 7-of-19 treys, they also scored 36 points in the paint to Ball State's four. The disparity was what Buckley called a "toughness area" and not all the blame falls on his post players.
"Pressure on the basketball, helping each other out, rotating, getting loose balls," were all traits he said the team lacked in its shoddy defensive effort. "If you're not going to make shots, you have to defend. Otherwise, it's going to be very difficult to play good basketball.
"We're getting the ball in there; we've got to finish in there," Buckley said of BSU's poor shooting. "We've got to have somebody who wants to take that ball up there and score."
For Ball State, the worst shooting team in the Mid-American Conference, Saturday marked the third-straight game the team shot less than 40 percent and the fifth time in seven games it has done so.
"I guess we just weren't in the flow of it," junior guard Matt McCollom said. "We just weren't hitting shots at all. I think we're getting the shots we want, but we're not being as aggressive as we need to be."
Dennis Trammell scored 13 points and Cameron Echols 10 in the first half for the Cards, but only Echols got a bucket in the second. Robert Owens' 10 points were the first 10 BSU scored in the second. It marked the first time in four games the senior had notched double figures.
"The past few games I've been trying to do something so quick," Owens said. "When I got in I just wanted to swing the ball, get other guys involved and then let it come to me.
"They were good. They executed their offense, and they're pretty-well coached. We didn't really come to play like we should have either, but I'm not trying to take anything away from them."
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