MEN'S BASKETBALL: Ball State survives NIU, grabs No. 5 seed

Cardinals comeback from 16 points to get win

Zach Fields and Bo Calhoun from Ball State fight for the redound against Northern Illinois's Aksel Bolin to catch the rebound. Ball State won the game 53 to 51. DN PHOTO JORDAN HUFFER
Zach Fields and Bo Calhoun from Ball State fight for the redound against Northern Illinois's Aksel Bolin to catch the rebound. Ball State won the game 53 to 51. DN PHOTO JORDAN HUFFER

Saying Ball State played like a different team in the latter half of the season doesn’t accurately describe its transformation.

Hearing Jauwan Scaife use phrases like, “how we used to play,” after narrowly beating the worst team in the Mid-American Conference West Division shows the Cardinals are unwilling to morph back into the old version of themselves—a deliberate, low-scoring version that went 4-8 in the first 12 games of league play.

While the players and coaches insist they’ve changed into a team worthy of its No. 5 seed in the MAC Tournament, the majority of Ball State’s (15-14, 8-8 MAC) 53-51 win over Northern Illinois (5-24, 3-13 MAC) on Saturday showed otherwise.

The Cardinals scored only 19 points in the first 20 minutes and trailed by 16 at the 6:14 mark of the first half. A late rally secured a nail-biting win, however, leading to coach Billy Taylor spinning things in his usual positive direction.

“We’re not going to be able to play every game in the MAC Tournament in the 80s or 90s” Taylor said. ‘To be able to do this and win was important for us. It’s a confidence booster because we’ve been scoring so much, and we want to be able to win in the 50s too.”

While the MAC Tournament traditionally involves lower scoring games, Ball State has been historically bad in them. The team won only one other game while scoring in the 50s this season, a 56-52 win over, you guessed it, Northern Illinois.

Saturday’s game definitely showed the Cardinals are much better in the type of fast-paced attack that won them the previous four games.

It seems Huskies’ coach Mark Montgomery knew that as well, saying afterwards that controlling tempo was one of the most important things his team could do.

“In an up-and-won game, right now, we just don’t have enough pieces to play with Ball State,” Montgomery said. “You have to make it one of those grimy, grind-it-out games. That was the best chance for us to win.”

Northern Illinois did that in the first half, forcing Ball State into seven turnovers compared to only 14 shot attempts.

The Huskies drained nearly every second out of the shot clock before scoring, taking the Cardinals out of rhythm early.

“We struggled getting out of the gates,” Taylor said. “We went to a lot of different guys, but the energy just wasn’t where it needed to be early on.”

Not even from Scaife, one of two Ball State seniors honored before the game. The MAC’s leading scorer in conference games (20.1 ppg) put in only five points on 1-of-6 shooting in the first half.

His early struggles permeated throughout a team that shot 6-of-14 and 5-of-12 from the foul line at halftime.

“I think at the beginning I was getting a little anxious at times,” Scaife said. “I just tried to calm down and let the game come to me. Just try to impact the game defensively first, but obviously that didn’t happen, so it was a little frustrating at the same time. I just tried to find that medium to try and relax so I can get into that good rhythm.”

The whole team seemed rattled by the slow pace of the game.

Northern Illinois continued hold its eight-point halftime lead, pushing it to double digits six different times as Ball State tried to put enough stops together to mount a comeback.

It proved difficult behind the team’s uncharacteristically bad free-throw shooting.

The Cardinals went 14-of-30 (46.7 percent) from the stripe, but they were able to cut the deficit to one point, 45-44, at the 6:07 mark after eight consecutive points by Scaife.

“He’s definitely a key if you’re going to beat them,” Montgomery said after Scaife scored a game-high 17 points. “He’s probably one of the best guys at getting fouled in the league because you must have unbelievable discipline to not go for his shot fake.

Sometimes all you need is to get one player going, and to me he’s the one player who changed their whole season around.”

Scaife got the team going on Saturday, but he had help to finish the Huskies off.

Two timely layups by freshman guard Marcus Posley put the Cardinals up by four with 4:17 to play.

Northern Illinois cut the lead to one point on an Aksel Bolin jumper, but the junior forward’s layup attempt to take the lead with six seconds left was pinned on the glass by Majok Majok.

“I don’t know who made the block, to me there was a lot of contact,” Montgomery said. For some reason we couldn’t get to the bonus and Ball State lived in the bonus. So you tell me.”

Ball State’s junior forward also disrupted the last shot of the game, a desperation corner 3-pointer by Antone Christian, but there was no disputing that one.

His attempt airballed and Ball State preserved its bye into the second round of the MAC Tournament in Cleveland on Wednesday.

“Even though we didn’t have our best performance, I’m glad that we can kind of get it out of our way, first in a win, and second before we get to Cleveland,” Taylor said.

Taylor was hinting at his team’s poor performance from the free-throw line and the Huskies’ inexplicable 35-22 domination on boards.  

During the Ball State’s streak of seven wins in eight games, the strong rebounding and clutch free-throw shooting anchored its attack.

Perhaps it’s their new, second-half confidence, but players don’t seem to think it will be a theme.

“They did a good job hitting you on the defensive end,” said junior forward Matt Kamieniecki. “We’ve got to do a better job controlling the defensive glass heading into the tournament. You just have to stick with it, feed off it and get better next game.”

Ball State’s next game will be against the winner of Monday’s first round game between the No. 8 and No. 9 seed.

Despite the Cardinals locking down the No. 5 seed on Saturday, Scaife said he still feels like no one is giving his team much of a chance.

“We’ve always been that underdog type of team,” Scaife said. “It’s something I’m used to, but I like it a lot. We’re on a roll now, so it’s going to be hard for any team to beat us as long as we play like we’ve been playing.”

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