Ronny Thompson received a rude welcome in his first game in the Mid-American Conference, as the University of Toledo Rockets hit a last-second shot to beat Ball State University's men's basketball team 62-60.
"You guys are going to think I'm crazy, but being out there you just have that feeling like 'Oh, that's going in,'" junior Peyton Stovall said. "You know it's going in ... I just didn't have a good feeling about it."
The loss was the fourth straight for the Cardinals (4-10, 0-1 MAC), and the third loss in Worthen Arena this season.
"Nobody wants to lose their first conference game," senior Chris Ames said. "Everyone I know comes out with, 'Oh, this is the first conference game, we got to get off to a good start.' This loss today is just going to make us come out with fire."
The Cardinals got off to a slow start as the Rockets built an early 10-2 lead. Ball State then went on an 18-3 run to take a 20-13 lead. The Cardinals would lead by as much as 10 in the first half, and went into halftime with a 29-22 lead.
"We knew they were going to come back, we knew they were going to make a run," Thompson said.
Ball State held the lead until 7:06 in the second half, when Jerrah Young completed a six-point run and gave the Rockets a 49-47 lead.
D'Andre Peyton hit his third three-pointer for Ball State to tie the score, and Toledo and Ball State traded the lead for the remainder of the game.
After Peyton Stovall missed his second free throw with 1:48 to go, Justin Ingram hit a three-pointer to give the Rockets a 60-59 edge.
On the next possession, Micah Rollin was fouled with 36 seconds remaining and went to the line. His first free throw went in, but the second bounced out. Toledo took the ball up-court and immediately called a time-out. After holding the ball for almost 15 seconds, they called another time-out with 12 seconds remaining.
"I feel like we kind of beat ourselves," Stovall said. "We let them come back into the game, get more confidence. That's a good thing, that we beat ourselves. Just knowing that we can go back and fix it."
On the final play, Toledo fed the ball to Ingram, who used a screen from Tino Valencia. Anthony Newell and Stovall came over to guard, but Ingram got the shot off, which bounced off the backboard and went in with .5 seconds remaining in the game.
After the game, Stovall said he thought Ingram was going to pull up for the shot. Instead, he continued to drive.
"It's tough, you know, [Stovall] was right there," Thompson said. "He listened to the scouting report, he listened in the huddle. He did what he was supposed to do. He stood right there and the guy took an off-balance acrobatic shot and made it."
Anthony Newell led the Cardinals with 11 points, while Stovall had 10. Peyton and Newell led the Cards with seven rebounds.
BREAK NOTEBOOK
The Cardinals struggled through much of the break schedule, winning one game. The Cardinals dominated Valparaiso to score an easy win on Dec. 15at home by a final score of 61-40.
The next home game saw the Temple Owls come to Worthen Arena. Ball State led at halftime, but Temple had 15 unanswered points in the second half. The Cardinals were able to pull to within five points at the buzzer when Stovall hit a three, falling 75-70.
The Cardinals returned to the road, traveling to Tennessee State University. The Cardinals were without Peyton, Newell and Micah Rollin because of injury. Without the three tallest players on the court for the Cardinals, Ball State fell 67-60.
On December 29th, Rashaun McLemore broke his hand in practice. He will miss the rest of the season.
The following day Ball State travelled to Indiana University, where the Cardinals played with the Hoosiers for most of the first half. However, the Hoosiers scored 12 straight points to end the half, and continued their run early in the second half, leading to a 71-57 victory for Indiana.
Ball State also announced over break that 12 of the remaining 15 Mid-American Conference games will be broadcast on television, the most in Ball State history.
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