Akron’s Rachel Tecca was averaging 18.9 points per game coming into Saturday’s contest against Ball State. She ended the game with 22 points as Akron beat Ball State, 64-52.
“She’s a good player,” Sallee said of Tecca. “Clearly an all-conference player. I was really impressed with her versatility. The way she takes the ball to the rim. … No question, we played against a first-teamer tonight.”
Tecca was just 6-of-11 from the field, but she made up for it in her free-throw shooting. The junior forward hit 10-of-11 from the charity stripe.
Ball State’s loss could be blamed not only on Tecca’s ability to score, but on their own inability to score.
The Cardinals made just 29-of-64 shots from the field, including just 3-of-15 from long range.
“It was a tough night shooting the ball,” Sallee said. “Man, alive. We couldn’t get those shots to drop. A couple of them were just from shot selection. We did have some good looks that ended up not happening for us.”
Sophomore guard Brittany Carter was especially cold shooting the ball on Saturday. She made just one of her 12 shot attempts.
Despite the offensive struggles, Ball State’s defense was spot-on as usual. Ball State gave up 64 points to a team that was averaging over 75 points per game.
The Cardinals have only given up one 70-point game to an opponent since conference play has started. Contrarily, Ball State gave up five 70-point games during the non-conference season.
“That’s just kind of who we are,” Sallee said of his team’s defense.. “I think the tempo was in our favor. It’s what we’ve done the whole conference season.”
Ball State’s leading scorer was freshman Nathalie Fontaine, who scored 14 points on 6-of-13 shooting. She also grabbed 11 rebounds, giving her a double-double for the night. However,
“She, at time, looked a little bit like a freshman,” Sallee said. “Give Akron credit. I thought they had her scouted well. With the foul trouble we got into, and the amount of minutes she had to play, you could see her play tired. She took a couple plays off. It hurt us.”
Sallee stressed the same thing for her as he did for the rest of her teammates.
“We need her to be a little bit better. Just like we need everyone else to be a little bit better. That’s what we have to keep working to.”
With the loss, Ball State falls to 11-13 overall and 8-3 in the MAC.
“When you go on the road you have to be special,” Sallee said. “We were anything but that tonight.”
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