As one would expect, lone senior Kate Endress came out on fire in her last regular season home game.
She scored the first nine points for the women's basketball team, all within the first four minutes, helping them jump out to a 9-3 advantage.
That advantage later became 20-4 and Ball State never lost its double-digit lead the rest of the way in a 81-65 win over Ohio on Saturday.
Unfortunately, Endress committed two fouls within a minute of each other around the 16-minute mark, causing her to have limited time on the court in the first half.
Besides her two fouls, Endress' stats looked perfect at halftime. She was 4-of-4 from the floor, including 2-of-2 from behind the arc, 2-of-2 from the line, two steals, one assist, one rebound and no turnovers -- all in 10 minutes of play.?
"I felt good coming out, I was just trying to stay focused on the game and not worry about all the hype of today," Endress said. "I think this time of year is just exciting.
"You're trying to savor your last time, and you're heading into tournaments that you've been working for all year."
Endress hit one more shot in the second half with 15:04 remaining before missing her first with 8:16 left in the game. She finished with 17 points off of 6-of-9 shooting in 27 minutes of play.
"I thought Kelsey (Corbin) and Kate right from the get go just got us going," head coach Tracy Roller said. "When we're playing like that, we're really hard to beat."
Ball State used a potent transition offense converting 25 Ohio turnovers into 34 points. Corbin said defense has been the key for the team all year and on Saturday that's what made it easy.
"We kind of feed off it," she said. "Getting steals in the backcourt and getting layups that's not hard to score in that sense, so it's all about the defense and then that runs over into the offense."
Despite the Cardinals second-leading scorer, Tina Bolte, going 0-12 from the floor, the rest of the team stepped up, something Endress was glad to see.
"It's really all I could ask for. I thought a lot of people stepped up tonight," Endress said.
Corbin was one of three players to finish in double figures, she added 16 points, her highest total since December 28 when she also had 16 against Saint Louis. Krista Stewart tied her career high with 15 points, which included three treys. ?
"When (Bolte's) not hitting, in the past we've really struggled because we haven't had that third or fourth or fifth punch," Roller said. "When we have three players or even four players in double figures we're a fun team to watch."
Even though Ball State won, because of an Eastern Michigan win over Marshall, the Cardinals can no longer get one of the three byes to Cleveland. So Endress will have one final time to shine in Worthen Arena.
"We're going to miss her, but I just want to spend every moment I can with her right now," Roller said.
All season long, the team has wanted to help Endress complete her goal of winning a Mid-American Conference Championship.
"Kate deserves to go out on a great note, and she's not going out right now, and this isn't the note we want her to go out on. We want her to go out on a MAC Championship," Corbin said. "Its hard for me to sit up here and explain to you guys in words exactly what Kate has meant to us. It's absolutely impossible to go over everything that she's done for us.
"For us to give her a good win here, it's just a little bit of how we can repay her."
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