One thing coach Kelly Packard hadn't seen from her young team this season was a strong showing from her post players.
Senior captains Suzanne Grossnickle and Amber Crago turned in what Packard called a "huge" performance for the Cardinals in Sunday's 59-55 triumph over Austin Peay of the Ohio Valley Conference.
Grossnickle, who entered the game averaging less than eight minutes per game, saw the floor for 23 minutes against the Governors, and was a big contributor for the Cardinals both offensively and defensively.
The fourth-year forward scored a season-high 12 points and set a career-high in rebounds with 11, including seven on the defensive glass.
Grossnickle said Sunday's win was a good way to bounce back after a disappointing loss to Butler on Friday night, which saw Ball State score a season-low 43 points.
"We really needed this win," Grossnickle said. "We really focused on doing us and working on what we needed to work on more than knowing what we needed to do stop them."
Grossnickle entered the game for the first time with 16:27 remaining in the first half. She drained a 3-point field goal less than a minute later to give the Cardinals a 10-6 advantage.
Nearly four minutes later, sophomore forward Jazmin Hitchens missed a 3-point attempt, and Grossnickle snagged the rebound and tried to bank the ball in off the backboard. She missed on her initial attempt, but converted the layup after a good second effort.
"She's got free range in what we call a trailer position when we reverse the ball to her in our transition," Packard said. "When we're filling the floor, she fills to that left arc area. The thing I value more than anything else is the rebounding that she did."
For the majority of the season, sophomore forward Katie Murphy has manned the boards for the Cardinals. But Murphy has struggled of late, which allowed Grossnickle to step up.
"We've always got to have somebody to take up the slack in that area," Packard said. "Just as much as the points, the double digit rebounding is huge for her."
Grossnickle's 12 points guided Ball State to a five-point lead at halftime before Crago took over in the second half.
Crago came on as a substitute near the midway mark of the second half. Less than a minute upon entering the game, she scored five points, helping guide the Cardinals to a 10-point advantage, their largest of the afternoon.
Packard labeled Crago's sudden burst of offensive production as an "immediate contribution."
"She finds something early, [an] easy score inside, gets to the free throw line [and] a nice run in transition," Packard said.
Freshman guard Brittany Carter also had another solid game for the Cardinals. Carter, who continues to amaze Packard from beyond the arc, converted four of six 3-point attempts. She led the Cardinals with 17 points, her second highest scoring effort of her career.
"The ball comes out of Brittany's hands so quickly," Packard said. "I think everybody in the gym feels like if it's not a make, it's going to hang right on the rim. She's just got such beautiful form and mechanics."
The Cardinals nearly self-destructed late in the second half, allowing the Governors to pull within one point. But a few key free throws sealed the Cardinals' fifth win of the season to even their record at 5-5.
Packard classified the victory as an ugly one, and said she doesn't care for the games that are so close, but understands the meaning behind it.
"I understand that it's not about the moment in time," Packard said. "It's about getting this young team in situations like that. Even if they hang on and it's not pretty, at the end of the day I told them that it still goes to the left side of the hyphen, which is the win column."
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