BOWLING GREEN, Ohio -- With the tempo at Ball State's liking, the team found the results rather favorable as well.
Junior forward Terrance Chapman and freshman point guard Peyton Stovall each scored a career-high 18 points, and the Cardinals (12-13 overall, 9-7 Mid-American Conference) played arguably their best road game of the season, scoring 52 points in the second half to vanquish Bowling Green (13-14, 8-8) 81-71 in Anderson Arena on Saturday.
"It's probably as well as we've played offensively in quite some time," BSU coach Tim Buckley said of the second half. "I thought it started with our defense, which is always does for us. But then I also thought our execution on the offensive end was pretty flawless at times in terms of making the right decision, making the extra pass.
"(I was) very pleased with the tempo of the entire game."
Stovall added three assists and just one turnover, playing a near-perfect floor game for the second time in a week. On Tuesday he had no points but nine assists and no turnovers at Marshall.
"Well, Peyton was a terrible player before he came to Ball State, and we made him what he is today, so that's basically all coaching," Buckley joked. "He takes coaching out of the equation. He's a smart player, heady player and knows what it's supposed to look like. I think he's a coach on the floor."
Thirteen of Stovall's points came in the second half, and his 3-pointer a the 12:05 mark put Ball State up for good, 47-44. One free throw from Skip Mills and two more from Matt McCollom capped an 8-0 run.
"It felt really fluid," Stovall said of the team's offense. "We just did a good job of making that extra pass and hitting the shot when it was open.
"We just want to push the ball up the floor, get easy buckets in transition. I think we did that today; we got a couple easy buckets, and that's important. (The tempo) was definitely where we wanted to be."
A Ron Lewis free throw with 8:54 left pulled the Falcons within 46-42. But the Cards reeled off a 13-2 run to forge a comfortable lead.
Lewis, the MAC's fourth-leading scorer, did not score another point in the half and finished with just nine on 1-of-8 shooting.
John Reimold netted four 3-pointers and 25 points to pace the Falcons. Steven Wright was the only other player in double figures with 11, nine of them came on 3-pointers in the final 1:13.
"Somebody's going to score for Bowling Green," Buckley said, "and fortunately we were able to hold some of the other guys down."
Dennis Trammell's jumper and Robert Owens' 3-pointer from the right corner started the 13-2 spurt, and Terrance Chapman capped with a pair of three-point plays down low, the second on a baseline drive with an up-and-reverse. That put made it 69-54 with 4:10 remaining.
Following Chapman's exploits, Bowling Green got no closer than eight, and the Cards scored their remaining points on 12-of-18 free-throw shooting.
Trammell (eight rebounds) and Cameron Echols added 10 points each for BSU, while McCollom and Owens chipped in nine each.
"They just beat us," Bowling Green coach Dan Dakich said. "Sometimes you beat yourselves, sometimes you want to blame other things, but today Ball State just flat beat us in the second half.
Dakich felt Ball State's quickness was the deciding factor on both offense and defense.
"The (Bowling Green) guy (guarding) the ball was just getting whipped," he said. "There's a difference between help, and your just stopping somebody else's man. We never got the basketball under control."
Unlike Dakich, who kicked BG out of its Saturday morning walk-through because "they were wasting our time," Buckley was pleased with his team's mindset entering the crucial contest, with both teams jockeying for seeding in the league tournament.
"When you go into games like this you have to have a good focus and a good mindset," said Buckley, whose team won its second-straight road game, "and I think our guys have that.
"I really believe this: If our guys come out and they believe they can play the way they're capable of playing, we're going to be a tough out in the MAC Tournament."
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