Trailing the entire game at the University of Akron on Wednesday night, the Ball State University men's basketball team was able to cut the Akron lead to two points at 52-50 with 3:52 remaining in the second half.
Ultimately the Zips' balanced scoring attack that featured six players with seven points or more would spell doom for the Cardinals. Ball State lost 63-55 to move to 10-12 overall and 5-5 in the Mid-American Conference.
The Cardinals' loss coupled with Western Michigan University's 76-62 win at home against Ohio University Wednesday night creates another tie between Ball State and Western Michigan atop the MAC West Division standings.
"It was certainly a hard-fought game tonight on both ends," coach Billy Taylor said. "I'm proud of our guys for coming out and giving a much better effort than we have shown the past couple of games. It was a competitive ball game all the way - we just couldn't get those key stops down the stretch."
Leading the way for the Cardinals was senior guard/forward Rob Giles with 17 points on 5-of-8 shooting from 3-point land. Freshman center Jarrod Jones had a game-high 12 rebounds to go with nine points, while freshman guard Pierre Sneed added a career-high nine points for Ball State.
For Akron (16-8, 7-3 MAC), junior forward Chris McKnight had a team-high 13 points, while junior guard Darryl Robberts added 11 points and three assists. Senior forward Nate Linhart also had nine points and a team-high 11 rebounds for the Zips, who extended their winning streak to seven games and five overall against MAC West opponents.
The Zips shot 21-for-28 from the free-throw line against the Cardinals.
"We fouled too much and Akron got a lot of free points at the line," Taylor said. "We were trying to be aggressive tonight but we have to learn how to be aggressive without fouling."
Akron's win on Wednesday night created a three-way tie for second place in the MAC East Division with Miami University and Bowling Green State University.
Ball State returns to play on Sunday as it plays host to MAC East leader University at Buffalo (16-5, 8-1 MAC). Tipoff is set for 2 p.m.
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