With three minutes left in Tuesday's game against Eastern Michigan University, the Ball State University women's basketball team used a 9-3 run to cement a 71-64 victory.
The win not only continued Ball State's hot start to the Mid-American Conference season, but also continued its trend of finding success down the stretch in close games.
"It was a really positive effort down the stretch," acting head coach Lisa McDonald said. "Their confidence and their competitiveness came together as a team and we had a really great defensive effort. We had performances from everyone."
Ball State started the contest with 12 unanswered points, forcing an Eastern Michigan timeout six minutes into the game. The Cardinals continued the run, pulling out to an early 18-1 lead midway through the opening half.
The Eagles fought back in the next three minutes and pulled to within nine points at 28-19 on one of Emily Compton's six 3-pointers. It was the last time the Cardinals would have a double-digit lead during the remainder of the contest.
Eastern Michigan pulled within a basket with two minutes remaining in the first half, but Shannon Klei sent Ball State to the locker room with a 38-32 lead after a buzzer-beating 3-pointer.
Witnessing an early 17-point lead deteriorate to a six-point difference at halftime, McDonald said losing the early lead concerned her with the team's ability to maintain a steady level of play.
"We talked about when the MAC started that you can have any lead and it can disappear if you are not dialed in and focused," she said. "We just talked about responding to their runs. We've just got to keep punching back, and if there is anything this team has done the last three games, it's responded."
The Cardinals' first deficit of the game came off seven unanswered Eastern Michigan points to open the second half. The two teams saw 10 lead changes in the second half before Ball State took control with 1:49 remaining with a Porchia Green layup and 3-pointer to seal the victory.
Green led the Cardinals with 22 points and 12 rebounds, resulting in her third double-double of the season and second in three games.
Senior Julie DeMuth said that Green has been a steady force behind the team's recent success.
"If you give her intensity and tell her to pick it up a little bit, she's going to roll with it," DeMuth said. "On the floor she can do pretty much anything. She can rebound, she's jumping over people, she's being crazy and hitting threes - she can do it all."
Ball State's defense shut down the Eagles' two leading scorers - Canea Williams and Alyssa Pittman, who combined to average more than 26 points a game - to six points Tuesday night. In concentrating on their two top performers, Eagles' guard Compton dropped 21 points, shooting 7-of-10 from behind the arc. Compton averaged 2.8 points a game before having a career performance at Worthen Arena.
"We really keyed on [Colleen] Russell, Pittman, Williams and their starting kids," McDonald said. "[Compton] just had a career night. She was just in a zone, one of those zones you just can't do anything about."
Ball State's next game will be at the University of Toledo on Saturday. After recording its first three-game winning streak of the season, DeMuth said her team expects to continue its torrent play.
"We're not stopping," DeMuth said. "We're going to keep moving [up]."
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