With one second remaining on the shot clock Sunday in the second half of the Ball State University men's basketball team's game against the University of Toledo, senior guard Brandon Lampley was at the right place at the right time.
Fellow senior guard Rob Giles' pass deflected off a Toledo defender and right into Lampley's hands, and his 3-pointer with 5:54 remaining in the game put the Cardinals ahead 10 points at 50-40 and ultimately proved as the exclamation point to a 66-53 victory against the Rockets in front of 3,504 fans at Worthen Arena.
"That was a hustle play," coach Billy Taylor said. "Loose balls that we went and then we saved or deflections that we got, steals, getting after loose balls - those are all hustle plays, those are plays that you can make when you're playing as hard as you can, and I think we did and we were able to take advantage of the fact that our guys were playing with great urgency."
With the win, Ball State remains tied with Western Michigan University atop the Mid-American West Division standings with a 4-1 MAC record and improves to 9-8 overall.
The 3-pointer from Lampley was one of several possessions the Cardinals used as a slow-paced offense to wear down the Toledo defense. Taylor said although making plays late in the shot clock wasn't part of the plan, it took awhile for his team to adjust to the Rockets' changing defensive schemes.
"[Toledo] started a possession in man-to-man and switched to zone kind of midway through, so I think it took our guys a little bit of time to get comfortable and into a rhythm," Taylor said. "Then we tried to do a better job of attacking gaps once we saw opportunities."
Two Cardinals recorded career-highs in the win. Giles came off the bench to score a career and team-high 16 points, while freshman center Jarrod Jones had a career-high 15 rebounds to go with 13 points for his third double-double of the season.
"Lately I have been having some troubles at times getting shots to fall, so tonight I just tried to focus on defense and tried to let my offense come to me," Jones said. "The whole season, [Taylor's] philosophy has been on defense and rebounds, and the offense will come."
Ball State trailed by as many as seven points with 2:46 remaining in a first half when it would shoot 31 percent (9-of-29) from the field. Two layups later from sophomore forward Malik Perry and a 3-pointer from junior guard Brawley Chisholm - his only bucket of the game - with five seconds remaining in the half, the Cardinals went into halftime tied at 22-22.
Toledo coach Gene Cross said Sunday's game was "the tale of two halfs."
"I think it gave them a lot of momentum going into the second half, and to their credit, they withstood our storm," Cross said. "We broke down mentally and Ball State took advantage of it, as well as they should have and they're a good team, they're well-coached and they do a good job."
A 3-pointer from Toledo senior guard Anthony Byrd tied the game at 36 with 9:05 remaining in the second half, but Ball State took control from that point, capped by Lampley's 3-pointer as the shot clock expired with 5:54 remaining. The Cardinals shot 14-of-27 (51.9 percent) from the field in the second half, including 3-of-6 on 3-point shots.
As a team, Ball State out-rebounded Toledo 37-36, including 14-11 on the offensive glass.
"They just outplayed us," said Toledo sophomore forward Justin Anyijong. "They out rebounded us. They came hard, hard at us. ... We just got outplayed in the second half."
Perry and Lampley capped four Ball State scorers in double-figures with 13 points in the game.
Anyijong led the Rockets (4-15, 2-3 MAC), which have yet to win a road game this season, with 19 points and nine rebounds.
Toledo's Tyrone Kent, a senior guard, was held scoreless in the first half and ended with six points on 2-of-9 shooting, including an 0-for-5 3-point shooting performance. Kent came into Sunday's game seventh in the MAC with a 15.6 points-per-game average.
"I thought it was a tremendous defensive effort," Taylor said. "I thought we really did a great job because I do think he's an explosive scorer and he's put up big numbers in quite a few games, and the fact that he only had six points is quite a testament to our intensity on defense."
The Cardinals travel to Bowling Green State University (9-9, 2-3 MAC) on Wednesday for their first game against a MAC East Division opponent this season.
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