YPSILANTI, Mich. -- Ball State needed to win its last two games to have any shot of a home game to start the Mid-American Conference Tournament.
The Cardinals came out slow Wednesday, but responded and cruised to a 71-56 victory over Eastern Michigan at the Convocation Center.
Ball State (14-12, 9-8 MAC) started the game -- as it has many times this season -- in a hole, as Eastern scored 19 of the game's first 24 points in the game's first nine minutes.
"Being down as much as we were and getting our mindset right, that's what we've been trying to do all year," sophomore point guard Peyton Stovall said. "In other games we couldn't get our head into the game, we'd get a little sluggish. Tonight we didn't do that.
"It was just everybody playing together."
With 11:10 remaining in the first half, the Cardinals started to click and whittle away at the Eagles' lead. They brought the lead down to six (25-19) on a Darren Yates jump shot, but a pair of free throws by EMU's Michael Ross and a Markus Austin jumper pushed EMU's lead back to 10.
Yates hit a 3-pointer, and Stovall and Terrance Chapman cut the deficit to 33-30 by halftime.
After Matt McCollom stole the ball and drove coast to coast for a layup to cut the Eagles' lead to one in the second half, Skip Mills drained an uncontested trey, giving the Cards their first lead since the opening minute.
"[The difference in the second half] was just communication," Stovall said. "We had everyone talking in the huddles. Even the managers were talking. We have to bring that kind of energy every single game from here on out."
Eastern (12-16, 5-12 MAC) briefly retook the lead at 36-35, but McCollom hit two free throws to give BSU the lead again. Following a James Jackson foul shot to tie it, a short jumper from Stovall and a block by Michael Bennett that turned into a Yates layup gave the Cards the lead for good.
"You have to give Ball State a ton of credit," Eastern coach Jim Boone said. "We hit them in the mouth; they went down to the canvas. They got up and hit us right back, and we didn't respond."
The Cardinals rolled from that point on, holding Eastern to 8 of 25 from the field in the second half.
"We just kept building on it," BSU coach Tim Buckley said. "It was basically deflections, defensive pressure, that demeanor you want to play with when you're a good basketball team."
Stovall led all scorers with 24 points, tying a career best, and added seven rebounds.
"Stovall's the key," Buckley said. "You look at his points, and that's great. But he spearheads the defense, and that's what gets this offense going. Then he comes up with seven rebounds."
Chapman notched his ninth double-double of the season with 14 points and 15 rebounds. Mills added 11 points.
For the moment, it looked like the Cardinals' already-thin lineup might get thinner when McCollom took an elbow to the eye while going for a rebound. He sat most of the first half but returned after halftime and added seven points, including five foul shots.
The Cards limited the Eagles to 19-of-51 shooting, just the fifth time this season they have held a team under 40 percent from the field.
Ball State made 24 of 53, including 7 of 15 from beyond the three-point arc.
"I think with this group, it's as well as we've played," Buckley said.
With one game remaining in the regular season, the Cardinals need to beat Western Michigan at home Saturday and have Kent or Toledo lose in order to earn the No. 8 seed and home game for the first round Monday.
"We just have to play the rest of the season like we did in the second half tonight," Stovall said.
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