After taking steps forward, Ball State seemed to take a step backward Wednesday night.
The Ball State men’s basketball team fell 51-71 on the road against Ohio.
Many of its offensive possessions in the first half were spent trying to beat the 35-second shot clock. The struggles continued in the second half as the Cardinals had trouble getting baskets to fall.
Ohio (12-4, 2-1 Mid-American Conference) played stingy, lockdown man-to-man defense to start the second half as the Bobcats would pull away from the Cardinals at the Convocation Center. Ball State (3-11, 0-3 MAC) made one-third of its attempted field goals (15-of-46) and committed 21 turnovers.
Senior forward Chris Bond paced the Cardinals with 14 points. Senior Majok Majok’s finished with a season-low four points and 11 rebounds. Freshman guard Zavier Turner contributed 10 points for the Cardinals as he committed six turnovers as the team dropped its third straight game.
Ball State shot 16.7 percent (3-for-18) from the three-point distance and 75 percent (18-for-24) from the free-throw line as the team handed out eight assists. It was the largest margin of defeat since the Dec. 4 loss against Valparaiso, 50-69.
The Cardinals experienced foul trouble as well with freshman forward Franko House fouling out and three other players finishing with four fouls. Ball State had the rebounding advantage at 36-31 and earned the penalty early in both halves of the game.
Ball State has played a string of games in which it showed improvement in the recent past, holding the lead at Kent State going into the half Saturday and nearly upsetting Akron before losing 68-72 on Jan. 8.
Ohio struggled as well, shooting 46.3 percent (25-of-54) from the field and making 68.2 percent (15-22) from the foul line. Ball State’s fouls and turnovers would take precedence as it was outscored 44-30 in the second half.
Maurice Ndour finished with a game-high 16 points and blocked two shots for the Bobcats. Leading scorer Nick Kellogg was held to 5 points on a poor shooting performance going 2-of-7 from the field.
Ball State has a brief break before suiting up for its second home MAC game against the Miami Redhawks at 2 p.m. Saturday.
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