The last time Ball State won a game, it was against the Northern Illinois Huskies. That was almost a month ago. The Cardinals have since dropped five straight and will look to stop their skid in the final game of the regular season when they once again face the Huskies on Tuesday.
"We're going to stay positive. There's no need to get down on our team," junior Kate Endress said. "We're doing a lot of things right right now, and there's just a couple little things that we need to switch to win."
Ball State will need a win if it wants to return home for a first-round Mid-American Conference Tournament game. Otherwise, the team will once again have to hit the road, where the Cards are 2-5 in conference play this season.
In their first meeting this season, the Cardinals used a 42-26 first-half effort and strong defense in the second half to hold on and win 70-57 in Worthen Arena. This time the Cards will have to take the long road trip to Northern only a day after they lost 84-79 in overtime to Bowling Green.
While the long trip to Northern worries head coach Tracy Roller, the very strong defensive team the Cards will face worries her more.
"They do a good job of guarding dribble penetration, which is kind of an important aspect of our offense," Roller said.
The Huskies are led by post players Jennifer Youngblood, who averages 10.4 points and 9.6 rebounds per game, and Joi Scott, who averages 11.1 points and 6.1 rebounds per game. Last game the Cards were able to hold both Youngblood and Scott to only 21 combined points, and they'll look to do the same this time.
Ball State's Jessica Reiter can help the efforts in the post, as she is the MAC's leading rebounder with 10.4 per game and also gets 9.9 points per game. Endress will also be looked to for help in the post after her career-best rebounding effort against Bowling Green, in which she had 17. Endress averages 6.6 boards per game and is the MAC's active leading scorer with 19.1 points per game.
Even though the Cardinals have been losing as of late, Roller feels the team is playing some of its best basketball and wishes there were three more weeks in the regular season. The season will end on Tuesday night for all MAC teams, and Saturday the MAC Tournament will begin.
"They really need this win just like we do," Roller said. "It's the end of the season, and every win means something."
The Cards insist there is plenty left to play for and that the MAC Tournament is a whole new season, so they're not giving up now.
"There's no way we're going to throw away the end of the season," Endress said. "We have (this) game left and then the tournament, so there's still a lot to play for."
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