After losing four straight games, all on the road, the Ball State women's basketball team will return home this weekend for its last regular-season home game. A win against the Bowling Green Falcons would clinch a first-round home game in the Mid-American Conference tournament for the Cardinals.
"Everybody wants to play here, and I think we play much better when we play at home," head coach Tracy Roller said. "It would be nice after Northern (Illinois) to be back home again."
Seniors Julie Just, Johna Goff, Jessica Reiter, Erica Sutton and Leah Boehme will be honored before the game as part of senior night.
"I think it's finally hit them this week," Roller said about the seniors. "Everybody's been giving it all they've got all year, and this is kind of like a chance for them to show what they've got."
"Basketball's been my life, and it's kind of scary to think that it could be over soon," Goff said. "I'm excited to be able to share it with this group of girls and the coaches because they're like my second family."
Ball State (12-13 overall; 7-7 MAC) will look to the senior leadership to help put an end to the four-game losing streak, which is the longest since the 1999-2000 season. Bowling Green (16-9; 9-5), on the other hand, is coming off of a 77-67 win against Marshall on Wednesday.
When the teams met earlier this season, the Cards won a close game after junior Kate Endress broke a tie with 15 seconds left to give them a 72-70 win. While it was Bowling Green's first loss in the MAC, it also served as a jump-start to Carin Horne's season as she scored nearly half the Falcons' points, finishing with 34.
The Falcons are currently led by three players who average double figures, with Stefanie Wenzel leading the team with 15.2 points per game. Ali Mann leads the team in rebounding with 7.9 per game.
"Their offensive firepower is unbelievable," Roller said. "When you have two teams with the offensive firepower like these two teams have and they're both playing for something, it's a scary situation as a coach."
Ball State's offensive firepower comes mostly from Endress, who leads active MAC players with 19.1 points per game. Goff also chips in double figures with 13.2 points per game, while Reiter pulls down a league-leading 10.4 boards per game. Freshman Kelsey Corbin who had a career-high 21 points against Miami in the Cardinals' most recent loss could also provide some firepower.
The Cards will need to execute on both ends of the court in order to come away with a win.
"Instead of game-to-game and possession-to-possession, it has to be offensive possession to defensive possession and back to offensive possession," Corbin said. "(We need to) focus on each one separately and not let what happens on defense dictate what happens on offense."
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