CLEVELAND - He hunched over at the free-throw line, hands on his knees and exasperated from several straight back-and-forth possessions of turnovers, steals, rebounds, picks and little shoves. The sweat made its journey from the top of his head, down his eyebrow and to the Quicken Loans Arena court.
Malik Perry was tired.
But the sophomore forward wasn't the only member of the Ball State University men's basketball team feeling the effects of a school-record three-straight overtime games in the Cardinals' Mid-American Conference Tournament Semifinal against the University at Buffalo.
Ball State's season ended Friday with a 64-52 loss to Buffalo.
"You just have to fight through it," coach Billy Taylor said of the fatigue. "I did think that some of [Buffalo's] size and depth wore us down over the course of the game."
The Cardinals, which ended the season with a 14-17 (7-9 MAC) record, hadn't played an overtime game the entire season until game No. 28 when they traveled to Western Michigan University and lost 84-82 to the Broncos on March 4.
Ball State then entered Worthen Arena four days later and couldn't pull out a win on senior day as it lost again in overtime, this time to Eastern Michigan University.
The Cardinals still earned a co-MAC West Championship with Western Michigan and Central Michigan University, as well as a No. 2 seed in the MAC Tournament, which meant a first-round bye and two extra days of rest. But the result in Thursday's quarterfinal against the Chippewas was all too familiar, as the Cardinals again needed an extra five-minute period to decide who would advance to Friday's semifinal.
Ball State defeated Central Michigan 64-61 in the Cardinals' school-record third-straight overtime game, setting up a rematch against the Bulls, who lost 53-51 at Worthen Arena on Feb. 15 in the only other matchup between the schools this season.
And, although Ball State was able to out-rebound the MAC's best rebounding margin team 36-33 in that game, freshman center Jarrod Jones said the Cardinals were simply overmatched in the paint during the semifinal, in which Buffalo won the battle on the boards 36-23.
"They're a very physical team [and] did a great job on the boards," said Jones, the 2008-09 MAC Freshman of the Year. "They did a good job of pulling our posts out toward the perimeter a lot, and then when their shots went up, we had a hard time getting back into the post into the paint to get the rebounds."
Taylor said the first half was more of a struggle on the defensive glass. Buffalo had six offensive rebounds in the first half that led to a 6-0 advantage in second-chance points and took a 29-25 lead going into halftime.
Taylor said the second half was where the fatigue began to set in and his trademark hard-nosed defense began to wear out.
The Bulls again had six offensive rebounds and 10 second-chance points as well as 19 of 21 free throw attempts in the second half, indicating a Ball State team that was a step behind.
"It was just a defensive slugfest the first time we played, and I was hoping that it would be much of the same this time against them," Taylor said. "But our problems were more in we couldn't control them, we couldn't get the stops we needed in the second half. First half we couldn't get the rebounds we needed."
Buffalo junior guard Rodney Pierce said his team's goal was to be relentless against a Ball State team he knew had played several recent overtime games.
"We had to keep up our defensive intensity whether there was fatigue or not," said Pierce, who finished with 18 points and three assists. "They might have been fatigued, but we knew we had to keep our intensity and not give up any good looks to any of them."
Senior guard Laron Frazier led the way for the Cardinals with 15 points, while senior guard/forward Rob Giles added 13. Jones chipped in with eight points and a team-high five rebounds.
Buffalo junior center Max Boudreau had 21 points on 8-of-10 shooting from the field and five rebounds off the bench to lead the Bulls. Freshman forward Mitchell Watt had 10 points and four rebounds, while senior guard Andy Robinson had seven points and a game-high six rebounds.
The Bulls advanced to Saturday's ESPN2 nationally-televised MAC Championship game against the University of Akron in which the Zips out-shot Buffalo 55.4 percent (18-for-49) from the field, including 57.6 percent (8-for-14) to 18.5 percent (3-for-16) from 3-point range to claim the program's first-ever MAC title and second-ever NCAA Tournament appearance by winning 65-53.
Fittingly, Buffalo (21-11, 11-5 MAC) won the battle of the boards by out-rebounding Akron 34-27 - including 13 offensive rebounds. But this time, Buffalo struggled at times with its ball handling, as Akron capitalized with 18 points off Buffalo's 15 turnovers.
The 13-seeded Zips (23-12, 10-6 MAC) advance to play No. 4 seed Gonzaga University on Thursday in Portland, Ore., in the NCAA Tournament.
Awards
Jarrod Jones - MAC Freshman of the Year, MACReportOnline.com newcomer of the year, Honorable Mention All-MAC
Brandon Lampley - Honorable Mention All-MAC.
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