The women's basketball team found a way to win on Saturday without its two leading scorers.
Erica Cotton scored a career-high 17 points and Lisa Rusche grabbed a team-high six rebounds as Ball State University (10-5, 3-2 Mid-American Conference) beat Northern Illinois 68-62.
Julie DeMuth and Tina Bolte missed the first game of their college careers. DeMuth leads the team with 12.5 points per game and 8.6 rebounds per game. Bolte is second in scoring at 11.4 point per contest.
Roller said DeMuth sat out because of continuing knee injuries from the summer. She said Bolte has had shin problems lately.
"It's nothing serious by any means," Roller said.
The Cardinals aren't practicing today, but Roller said she expects to have DeMuth and Bolte back for practice Tuesday and should be ready for Wednesday's game at Miami (Ohio).
With two of the team's tri-captains out, the Cardinals relied on their depth. Rusche made her first collegiate start and played a career-high 22 minutes. Stephanie Douglas made her first start of the season and scored 11 points.
The Huskies (6-10, 2-3 MAC) jumped out to a 16-8 lead early. But the Cardinals settled down and went into halftime tied at 40-40.
Cotton took over in the second half, scoring the Cards first eight points. She was 6-of-10 shooting and had five rebounds, two assists and two steals. The win keeps the Cardinals in a tie for second place in the MAC West. Eastern Michigan leads the division at 5-0 and Western Michigan sits at 3-2 with Ball State.
"Obviously this game was huge for a lot of reasons," Roller said. "We're second place in the conference. And we have a goal set for our team to not lose back-to-back games in the MAC. We kept that goal alive playing without two starters, so that's pretty special."
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