After a 35-11 start against the Miami RedHawks, the women's basketball team withstood some runs and held on for a 75-60 win Sunday in Worthen Arena.
Ball State has now won five straight and leads the Mid-American Conference West Division with a 6-2 record. Bowling Green (5-2) sits a half-game back.
Senior Kate Endress and sophomore Tina Bolte both said the team has been looking for a strong start in its past few games, but has not had one. That changed on Sunday.
"We came out really hot," Bolte said. "We kind of let up. We didn't play as hard as we did when we first came out, but we got it done and we finished it off."
The Cardinals shot 12 of 21, including 6 of 9 from behind the arc, during that opening run, which spanned the first 13 minutes. Miami, on the other hand, was 5 for 24 from the field.
"We did everything perfect in the first 10 minutes," head coach Tracy Roller said. "It helps when you hit shots and you guard like we were.
"It was like we came out so on fire that it looked like we knocked them back off their heels."
Endress scored all 10 of her first-half points within the first eight minutes, including two 3-pointers.
"That really set the tone for the whole game," Endress said of the first 13 minutes.
While Roller was happy with the start, she said she knew it couldn't last the entire game. When Miami scored six straight within a minute-and-a-half at about the five-minute mark, she yelled, "Hey let's go, this game is not over," from the sidelines.
The RedHawks got within 15 at halftime thanks to 14-5 run the final seven minutes, during which Ball State turned the ball over five times.
Turnovers continued to hamper the Cardinals in the second half. After getting an 18-point lead -- the team's largest of the second half -- at the 15:13 mark, BSU let Miami go on an 18-6 run and get within 58-52 with 6:24 remaining.
"If you give a team more possessions because you turn it over they're going to come back," Roller said.
In the final 6:24 of the game, the Cardinals got just one field goal -- from sophomore Kelsey Corbin with 5:18 left. But they hit 15 free throws, including eight by Endress, to seal the victory.
Endress finished with 23 points and eight rebounds. Bolte was the only other Cardinal in double figures with 10, but Corbin and freshman Julie DeMuth each scored nine. DeMuth also added rebounds, six of them in the game's first 10 minutes.
"We just got to learn, even when we're up, to still attack the basket and take care of the ball," Endress said. "I thought we really just got it done when we needed to."
Cindi Merrill led the RedHawks with 25 points, 19 of them in the second half, and Amanda Jackson added 14.
Miami scored 27 points off of Ball State's 23 turnovers. Fifteen of the turnovers came in the second half, leaving the Cardinals with something to work on.
"I'm not happy with the way we played tonight," Roller said. "We have a lot of things to get better at, which is very scary to be 6-2 right now and talking about we have a lot to improve on."
With two road games coming up, the team will also have limited time to fix those problems. Ball State will take Monday off, leaving it just one day to prepare for a matchup against Eastern Michigan on Wednesday. It then travels to Northern Illinois this weekend.
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