Seniors Suzanne Grossnickle, Amber Crago and Megan Craft walked to center-court on Senior Night in Worthen Arena to be recognized as Ball State players for the final time. But their moment was spoiled, as visiting Toledo defeated Ball State 70-65 on Tuesday night.
Even with Grossnickle's career-high 20-point performance, Crago's timely field goals and Craft's energy and hustle, the Cardinals couldn't solve the Rockets' offense, which shot over 45 percent from the field.
Despite the loss, coach Kelly Packard said her team did a tremendous job of matching up with one of the best teams in the Mid-American Conference.
"I felt like we executed pretty well on offense," Packard said. "We had improved significantly on Yolanda Richardson from the first game. I felt like we kept our poise. I was very pleased with how well we played."
The Cardinals trailed by eight points with 3:42 remaining in the game when the offense began to click. Freshman guard Brittany Carter sank a pair of free throws to cut the deficit to six.
After Toledo's Richardson missed a short-range jump shot, Carter drained a 3-point field goal to pull the Cardinals within three points, 58-55.
That's as close as the home team would get. Toledo slowed down its offense, leaving Ball State with no choice but to foul. The Rockets cashed in on multiple opportunities at the free-throw line to seal the game.
When asked what hurt her team the most, Packard said it was the lack of finishing on defense.
"Second-chance points was a huge topic at halftime," Packard said. "They had 12 second-chance points at the half and those are easy put-backs for them if it's Richardson getting one or even [Lecretia] Smith or even [Kyle] Baumgartner. Over the course of the game, [it] was an issue for us."
The loss may have been the 20th of the season for Ball State, but it didn't dampen the seniors' spirits. Crag said they plan to use it as motivation for Saturday's MAC tournament play-in game.
"It meant a lot for us to come out and play as well as we did, even with the loss against one of the best teams in our conference," Craft said. "Just a step in the right direction and hopefully that's a good step for us for [the] tournament."
Crago echoed her teammate's belief.
"It's just what you need," she said. "You've got to get your momentum going right into the tournament. You can't peak at the wrong time and we haven't peaked yet, so this is a great time to do that."
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