The Ball State University men's basketball team needed little extra motivation Tuesday in its Mid-American Conference home opener against Northern Illinois University.
Three days after losing senior forward Anthony Newell, the team's leading scorer and rebounder, to a season-ending leg injury, moving on was a necessity.
The inspired Cardinals squad, wearing a red and white "32" on each jersey to honor the fallen teammate, used a second half comeback to defeat the Huskies 60-54 in front of 3,001 fans at Worthen Arena to even its overall record to 7-7 and improve to 2-0 in the MAC.
"When you lose your best player, you talk about coming together totally as a team and bringing a whole bunch of energy," senior guard and captain Brandon Lampley said. "And that brought us through [tonight]."
With the victory, the Cardinals also surpassed last year's win total when Ball State finished 6-24 in Billy Taylor's first year as head coach.
Taylor said he was proud of his team's pride displayed Tuesday.
"Tonight was just a little bit different because we were missing someone that we all care about and wasn't a part of it tonight with us," Taylor said. "These guys have played with a lot of pride this entire year, and I was just glad to see them come out and see them play so hard and be able to get the decision tonight."
In their first game without Newell, who had surgery on a compound fracture to his right tibia and fibula suffered in Saturday's 46-42 win at Eastern Michigan University, the Cardinals leaned on the remaining three seniors - guard/forward Rob Giles, guard Laron Frazier and Lampley - to remain undefeated in MAC play this season.
Giles, starting in Newell's place, had a career-high 11 points on 3-of-7 shooting from beyond the 3-point arc, Frazier had 10 points off the bench and Lampley added nine points and a game-high four assists for Ball State.
"We've talked a lot throughout this year about the freshman, everybody's made a big deal about the freshmen and the impact they've made for the team and the program, but we wouldn't have made the progress that we've made as a program without our seniors," Taylor said. "Those guys have been tremendous and their leadership is what has allowed our freshmen to keep growing."
Northern Illinois coach Ricardo Patton said his team expected to face an inspired Cardinals squad.
"Hats off to Ball State. I thought the kids did a great job of coming out and playing with a great deal of fire and emotion," Patton said. "In the first game out, I think their challenge now will be to be able to sustain that level of intensity, that level of desire - wanting to prove that they can still win games without [Newell]."
In the first half, Taylor said the Huskies (5-9, 1-1 MAC) were able to take advantage of some quality outside shooting to drive past Ball State defenders.
The Cardinals went into halftime trailing 34-27.
"I thought the first half, Northern came out and made a couple long shots early, and they kind of scared us out and we started rushing out at a lot of their guys, treating them like they were jump shooters, and then they started driving the ball past us," Taylor said. "I thought we made the adjustment and understood that they made some shots early, but the guys who are drivers are drivers."
Ball State quickly began to cut the Northern Illinois lead on a series of steals and fast break opportunities. A Frazier fast break layup off a steal from sophomore forward Malik Perry cut the Huskies' lead to 39-35 with 13:59 remaining in the game, and Lampley stole the ball on Northern Illinois' next possession and scored to cut the lead to two at 39-37. Frazier would then steal the ball again and tie the game off another Perry steal with 13:06 remaining.
The rest of the game was a back-and-forth battle until the 3:34 mark in the half when Frazier hit a lay-up to put Ball State up 51-50. The Cardinals would not relinquish the lead for the rest of the game.
A dunk by a wide-open freshman forward Mo Hubbard with 16 seconds remaining put an exclamation point on an already-emotional win for the Cardinals.
"It was nice that we were able to finish the game," Taylor said. "I think it was Laron who found Mo there wide-open, so we weren't just holding on to the basketball playing intense or playing tight, we looked up and we just made the easy play and we hit the open man."
The Cardinals also won the turnover battle with nine turnovers to the Huskies' 16, including a combined one turnover between guards freshman Randy Davis, Frazier and Lampley.
Northern Illinois, who came into the game as the MAC's best in steals at 8.62 steals per game, had four steals Tuesday.
"Our guard play was terrific tonight," Taylor said. "For us to have 17 assists on 22 baskets, only the one turnover from our three guards, that's terrific and it gives us an opportunity to score the ball."
All nine Ball State players who received minutes scored in the game, while the Cardinals' bench outscored the Huskies' bench 28-5 for the game. Freshman center Jarrod Jones also had a game-high 11 points and a team-high seven rebounds for Ball State.
For Northern Illinois, Anderson led the way with a game-high 16 points and eight rebounds, while freshman guard Mike DiNunno had 13 points and sophomore center Sean Kowal added 10.
Ball State, off to its best start in MAC play since the 2004-05 season, will take its second weekend road trip in a row as the Cardinals face host Central Michigan University for a 4:30 p.m. tipoff on Saturday. The team hopes to carry the inspiration of Newell for the rest of the season.
"Being at home, good home crowd, having New not here, we're going to keep that emotion with us all year," Giles said. "And that's something we're going to try to keep."
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