Ball State's Skip Mills and Buffalo's Calvin Cage carried their men's basketball teams on their shoulders Monday. The two guards battled one another for scoring supremacy in the first round of the Mid-American Conference Tournament and although Mills won the battle, he couldn't win the war.
For the second straight game, Mills eclipsed his career-high point total by scoring a game-high 38 points, but his teammates didn't provide enough help early in the game and the Cardinals season ended with an 80-72 loss at Buffalo. The Bulls will travel to Cleveland on Thursday to play No. 1 seed Kent State in the quarterfinals of the MAC Tournament.
Cage led his team with 30 points while Mills scored 21 of Ball State's 28 first-half points. Coach Tim Buckley said his young players weren't ready for the post-season environment.
"Our young people got very caught up in the environment to start game," Buckley said. "You can tell how [Mills] has grown as a leader throughout the season because although his teammates weren't coming with him in the first half he didn't get frustrated."
Mills, who scored 12-straight points to end the first half, said the team's slow start was a negative factor in the game.
"We felt we didn't come out with the energy we needed to in the first half," Mills said. "I think that kind of showed our inexperience."
The Cardinals were behind 16 points at halftime but the team responded in the second half by shutting down the Bulls' offense.
Buffalo started the second half by shooting 1-of-9 from the field and its scoring woes let Ball State climb back into the game.
Ball State came within three points of Buffalo twice during the final four minutes of the game.
Freshman Maurice Acker, who was named MAC Freshman of the Year on Monday, drilled a 3-pointer from the right corner to bring the Cards within 75-72 with 32 seconds remaining. Acker, however, fouled Cage before Buffalo in-bounded the ball and
Cage made his seventh and eighth consecutive free-throws to stretch Buffalo's lead and ultimately seal the game.
"We definitely didn't want that foul there on a dead ball," Buckley said. "We would have preferred they inbound it, trap them and try to turn it over or try to get the ball in somebody else's hands."
Junior D'Andre Peyton was the only other Cardinal to score in double-digits with 11 points. Mills and freshman Anthony Newell grabbed a team-high six rebounds each.
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