Throughout Ball State University's 71-54 loss to Illinois State University on Tuesday, the paint was dominated by the Redbirds forward/center combo of Ashleen Bracey and Nicolle Lewis.
Bracey was the offense to Lewis' defense. Lewis used her 6-foot-6-inch frame to block or alter the Cardinals' shots from in the paint.
"Obviously she's a big threat just because of how big she is," senior forward Julie DeMuth said. "I didn't personally change my shot ... I was outside most of the time. She's a big force because she is 6'6" but I thought Lisa Rusche did a good job of really muscling up with her."
Lewis finished the game with four blocks to go with 14 points and nine rebounds. Meanwhile, Bracey had 18 points and 10 rebounds, 16 and nine in the first half, while playing mainly the power forward position.
The two helped lead the Redbirds 50-14 advantage in the paint.
Coach Tracy Roller said the disparity of points in the paint was because her team didn't rotate people down from the perimeter for help defense.
"I think a lot of their points in the paint were just we couldn't really leave a lot of their shooters to come down and help," Roller said. "So it was pretty much one-on-one in the post. We usually give a lot of help [on post defense] from the perimeter."
The Redbirds play predominately with a three-guard lineup. Roller said Illinois State's guards are all good shooters and was the reason the Cardinals couldn't rotate people down to help against Bracey and Lewis.
However, Roller said she was happy with her team's perimeter defense which held the Redbirds to one of 13 shooting on 3-pointers.
"I'm really impressed," Roller said. "One for 13 I was really happy with that stat."
The Redbirds had 14 offensive rebounds and nine of those were collected by either Bracey or Lewis. The two combined to shoot 13 of 21 from the field, 61.9 percent, meanwhile the rest of the Redbirds shot 17 of 44, 38.6 percent.
For Ball State, DeMuth had 19 points, moving her into a tie for 12th place in Ball State's career points list with 1,138, and seven rebounds while Rusche had 10 points and eight rebounds battling mostly with Lewis down low. Also Emily Maggert came off the bench to have six rebounds, five offensive, in 18 minutes.
The problem for the Cardinals' forwards was their shooting. DeMuth shot five of 16, Rusche four of 12 and Maggert zero of four. Combined they shot nine of 32, 28.1 percent.
However, the Cardinals had more offensive rebounds than the Redbirds, 16-14.
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