With the score tied at 37 in the final seconds of the first half, freshman guard Audrey McDonald hit an off-balance lay-up, giving the Cardinals a two-point halftime advantage.
The shot, which gave McDonald her eighth point of the half, was a sign of things to come. In the first four minutes of the second half, McDonald scored nine of her career-high 23 points to give Ball State University a 51-44 lead with 15:51 remaining in the half. The Cardinals opened a game-high 17 point lead before ending with a 81-72 victory over Northern Illinois University.
McDonald said her play to start the second half was a reflection of her team's performance on the offensive end of the floor.
"Everything clicked in the first few minutes of the second half," McDonald said. "We ran our offense, and the team set good screens. It was a very good offensive [four] minutes of basketball for our team."
While McDonald gave her teammates the bulk of the credit, Cardinals' coach Tracy Roller said she was impressed with the freshman's offensive output.
"We had a very good practice Monday, and Audrey was just on fire," Roller said. "I asked her what her mentality was in the practice, and she said, 'I'm not worried about the shot clock. I'm not worried about anything. I'm just catching and shooting.' I told her that's what I wanted her to do in a game, and that's what she did tonight."
The Huskies shot 14-of-28 from the field in the first half, including 5-of-10 from behind the 3-point line. However, Northern Illinois cooled down slightly in the second half, shooting 13-of-29 from the floor, and 2-of-9 from behind the arc. Ball State senior guard Kelsey Corbin, who scored 12 points, credited the coaching staff with making the right defensive adjustments at halftime.
"We went into halftime and the coaching staff does a really good job of seeing what adjustments we need to make," Corbin said. "Then the team just goes out there and executes those adjustments. Tonight our defensive [pressure] wasn't quite on point in the first half, and once we got on point we started creating some turnovers."
Northern Illinois starters Kritin Wiener and Stephanie Raymond both scored over 20 points for the Huskies, but Ball State's bench outscored the Huskies' bench 20-5.
Roller said she was happy with her team's ability to overcome the Huskies' offensive stars.
"We were hoping to play defense a little better on Wiener and Raymond, but when it got to the point where two seniors were just having really great game we knew that we needed to make the most out of every possession." Roller said. "They ran their offense very well, and they had a great shooting night, but we were able to [outscore] them, and we had a ton of poise at the end."
The win was Ball State's eighth in a row, which tied the second longest winning streak in the programs' history. It also put the Cardinals at 5-0 in the Mid-American Conference's West division. Roller said the 5-0 record was a team goal before the conference season, and the Cardinals have set their sights on a new challenges.
"We're ready for another goal," Roller said. "We talk as a team about setting these little goals, so we'll talk tomorrow about setting another goal. But I'd really like to break [our program's longest winning streak at] 11 in a row that we set in 2001. We're going to celebrate this win tonight and talk about a new goal with the team tomorrow."
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