Ball State had the chance to secure its third win over a NCAA Division-I opponent this season, but Bowling Green erased any hope.
Freshman Zavier Turner made 3 of his 5 total points on the right wing to put his Cardinals up 64-61 with 1:20 left in the game. From there, the Cardinals lost composure and allowed the Falcons to drain five free throws to put the game away.
“It wasn’t much for us to do really,” Turner said. “I was just trying to get a shot off and he fouled me and [the refs] didn’t call it.”
Turner referenced the final play of the game where Ball State had the ball with a running clock of 4.4 seconds left off a Richaun Holmes missed free-throw.
Senior center Majok Majok grabbed the rebound and quickly got the ball to Turner, who raced up the left side of the floor to attempt a left-wing three. Turner appeared to have taken contact but nothing was called.
“I told the team in the locker room, I said ‘I’m disappointed, that was our game to win,’” Ball State head coach James Whitford said. “We defended great in the second half.”
The first half started off shaky for the Cardinals as the 11-14 Falcons opened up the game on an 8-0 run. It took a 30-second timeout for the Cardinals to find rhythm to crack into the scoring column of the scoreboard.
“They started scoring like crazy,” Whitford said. “They scored every time they got the ball for the first 10 minutes.”
The 4-19 Cardinals were picked up and carried on the shoulders of its 6-foot-2 senior guard Jesse Berry as he led his team with 20 points. Berry became the all-time record holder for three-point attempts made Saturday afternoon, with 206 attempts successful.
“I couldn’t be more proud of him for the way he’s grown,” Whitford said.
Berry’s new record broke the old record of recent graduate and team manager, Jauwan Scaife, who set the bar with 203 attempts made last season in the Mid-American Conference tournament.
“It’s an honor to be up there to lead Ball State in that, but I just wish we would’ve won,” Berry said. “It would’ve been better if we would’ve won. It’s not about the individual thing — I’m really here to win.”
Winning seems far-fetched for a team that sits at 1-11 in MAC play, Ball State has lost its last five home games by 12 points or less going into Saturday. The Cardinals have played from behind or have played in close ones in six games this season. Its biggest win was the 71-68 upset victory over Buffalo on Jan. 23.
“I still got faith in us,” Berry said. “I think we just need to rattle a couple off, we just need to get some confidence going into the tournament.”
Freshman forward Franko House benefited from Berry, who went 6-9 from deep, as he finished with a career-high 13 points. House grabbed four rebounds and shot 6-8 from the foul line in the game.
“I just wanted to be more aggressive than I was in the first half,” House said. “I was timid in the first half, I just wanted to come out and play hard.”
House went into the intermission with four points, two rebounds, two assists and a three-pointer in 14 minutes of play.
“Adversity reveals character,” Whitford said. “We’re all getting tested, that’s real.”
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