After dropping a game to the best team in the Mid-American Conference East Division, the Ball State University women's basketball team looks to get back on the winning track when it travels to Buffalo, N.Y., to take on the University at Buffalo at 2 p.m. Sunday in Alumni Arena.
The Cardinals (14-8, 6-2 MAC) lost to Bowling Green State University on Tuesday 76-67 in a battle of the top two teams in the MAC.
Ball State coach Kelly Packard said her team made some errors, but she was overall happy with its effort.
"I told the players in the locker room after the Bowling Green game that I wasn't unhappy with them mainly because I thought their effort was very, very acceptable," Packard said. "We played very hard at Bowling Green. I
really felt like we played with a lot of emotion and certainly pushed Bowling Green several times."
The Buffalo Bulls (5-16, 1-7 MAC) have struggled during the past three months. In its last 14 games, Buffalo has managed one win, beating Western Michigan University 72-64 on Saturday. Though Buffalo has struggled recently, Packard said, her team will "definitely respect Buffalo."
"The attention-getter is that Miami only won by one point at Buffalo," Packard said. "They also have played some close games."
Buffalo lost to Central Michigan University and the University of Akron both by eight points and to Ohio University in overtime by three.
"Probably the only thing that needs to be said is that Buffalo beat us last year," Packard said. "That's still not too far removed from memory."
Ball State will have to contain Buffalo's forwards Kourtney Brown and Jessica Fortman.
Brown, a 6-foot redshirt sophomore leads the Bulls in scoring per game with 15.7 points, rebounds per game with 7.1 and blocks for the season with 34. Fortman, a 6-foot sophomore, is the second leading scorer for Buffalo with 11.3 per game, second in rebounding with 6.9 per game and has 31 blocks on the season.
Ball State has started the same lineup all season thus far, but that might change Sunday. Audrey McDonald suffered an injury involving her head in the loss to Bowling Green on Tuesday. Packard said McDonald fell after an attempted 3-point shot.
"It appears that she is going to be fine. I haven't received official word to whether she'll play Sunday or not," Packard said.
Ball State comes into the game looking like the favorite, but Packard said the key is getting better each game.
"Like I tell our players, we need to make sure we are getting better each game," Packard said. "The young ladies in uniform across from us are important, but we need to make sure we are improving and not that we are just doing whatever it takes to win a particular game but whatever it takes to continue getting better."
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