The Falcon women’s basketball team held home court at the Stroh Center on Saturday where they faced off in their third Mid-American Conference matchup against the Ball State Cardinals. They suffered their fourth straight loss, 84-73, falling to 8-6 overall and 0-3 in MAC play.
At the end of the first half, the Cardinals led 46-32, with a strong scoring performance by guard Carmen Grande. However, the high scoring first half for the Cardinals was due in large part to 11 turnovers and 17 points off turnovers by the Falcons.
With the many costly mistakes at the start by the Falcons, head coach Jennifer Roos talked about the difference that made in the game.
“We fumbled into turning the ball over,” Roos said. “I can handle certain turnovers, and our kids understand the difference between a turnover with working the ball and a contested shot at the buzzer, or what I call the pick six where you turn it over at the top of the key, which leads to two points the other way.”
While turnovers and foul trouble hindered the Falcons’ chances to get back into the game completely, sophomore guard Caterrion Thompson didn’t go down without a fight going 6-10 from three-point range, scoring 21 points in total off the bench.
“I got a lot of open looks,” Thompson said. “I just tried to keep my confidence after missing a few.”
Thompson was quick to point out, despite her success from beyond the arc, that Ball State made it difficult for the team to get “into the paint” and score.
“They were in our face a lot, used pressure,” Thompson said. “They were just constantly switching it up, which made it a little difficult.”
The Falcons were able to cut the score down to single digits a few times in the second half, but ultimately, with quick responses on the other end of the floor by the Cardinals and the turnovers, it was just too much to overcome.
“We’ve just got to figure out how to take care of the ball better,” Thompson said. “When that happens that’s pretty hard, almost impossible to get out of.”
Despite the loss and the disappointing first quarter, the team was pleased with their overall attitude and confidence throughout the rest of the game.
“Give our kids credit, they didn’t stop after that first quarter and battled throughout,” Roos said. “There were multiple times where we had a lot of young ones on the court and they stepped up and produced in crunch time. I’m proud of our effort.”
The team will play next Wednesday night, where they will head to Mount Pleasant, Michigan to take on the Central Michigan Chippewas.
