Before Ball State's (16-10, 8-7 MAC) road trip to Western Michigan (14-12, 8-9 MAC) Feb. 23, junior Annie Rauch hadn’t scored more than 12 points. Her highest field goal percentage was 71 percent with a minimum of five shots taken.
In the Cardinals' 64-56 win against the Broncos, Rauch scored a career-high 22 points on 10-for-10 shooting from the field. Head Coach Brady Sallee said he felt happy for Rauch because of her unselfish mentality.
“The thing with Annie is I think everyone is genuinely excited for her because of who she is,” Sallee said. “She takes as much pride putting on the jersey as anyone on the team and she’s a team-first kid.”
Rauch played 21 minutes off the bench and Sallee said she took what she saw and heard on the sideline and applied it on the court.
“Annie listened to adjustments,” Sallee said. “She saw what was going on on the floor when she wasn’t in the game and went in and was active off the ball.”
Junior Sydney Freeman added 18 points to complement Rauch, and Sallee said Freeman helped the Cardinals get back on track when Western Michigan made its runs.
“I thought Syd was big for us when we were struggling,” Sallee said. “When we weren’t playing real hard she started pushing the ball down Western’s throat and started making things happen.”
The Broncos were led by junior guard Sydney Shafer with 18 points. Western Michigan shot 31 percent on 18 more shot attemots than the Cardinals. Ball State committed 24 turnovers, but Sallee said the Cardinals didn’t get down on themselves and made up for it defensively.
“We didn’t get butthurt when we turned it over,” Sallee said. “We didn’t allow them to make a huge dent in this game from points off of turnovers because we kept hustling back and making the stop.”
The Cardinals allowed 18 points off of their 24 turnovers and outrebounded Western Michigan 45-32. Sallee said the key to winning was finding a way to win by any means necessary.
“We just found a way to win,” Sallee said. “We had to dig down and find that fight in the dog and defend until we figured it out offensively. I say it all the time, “it doesn’t always have to be pretty but it always has to be tough.”
The Cardinals and the Broncos have now both played five games in three days, the latter two of the three against each other. Sallee said almost every team in college basketball has to face this schedule, so the Cardinals looked at this stretch with optimism.
“We’ve never looked at it as a way to make excuses,” Sallee said. “We’ve looked at it as a challenge and said, “we’re built for this, let’s go.”
The Cardinals return to Worthen Arena against Northern Illinois (12-13, 8-8 MAC) Feb. 26. Tipoff is 1 p.m.
Contact Kyle Smedley on Twitter @smedley1932 or via email at kyle.smedley@bsu.edu.
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