After a win Ball State University's men's basketball team coach Ronny Thompson described as "ugly," the Cardinals traveled to Miami University looking for consecutive wins for the first time since Jan 19. Instead the Cardinals just played ugly as they fell to the RedHawks 66-44 Saturday.
The loss was the Cardinals' (8-16, 4-7 Mid-American Conference) third in the last four and the seventh straight loss to the RedHawks (12-11, 8-3 MAC).
Miami made eight of its first nine shots and scored 16 of the first 18 points in the game. Ball State shot 5-of-20 in the first half, while Miami shot 17-of-24.
"We keep beating ourselves like before with the way we come out in games," Peyton Stovall said.-á "It seems we need someone to hit us hard before we play."
Ball State was down 36-18 at halftime and never closed to within 10 in the second half. Miami scored 40 of its 66 points in the paint and shot 59.1 percent.
"Miami did a heck of a job defensively," Thompson said.-á"On the offensive end, they executed very well.-áThey do the blue-collar things that you must do to win."
Tim Pollitz scored 24 points on 11-of-15 shooting and Nate Peavy added 14 converting 6-of-8 field goals.
"We did not come to play defensively with the aggression we had to have and they took advantage of it," Thompson said.
Anthony Newell was the only Cardinal to score in double figures with 12 points and nine rebounds. Stovall added nine points and four rebounds.
Micah Rollin started but played eight minutes and Skip Mills didn't play in the second half. Both were suffering from the flu, and combined for four points and one rebound.
The Cardinals were outrebounded 36-20 and suffered their worst loss since Butler University defeated the Cards 65-41.
Ball State will look to turn things around Tuesday when they travel to Northern Illinois University.
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