What is it about Worthen Arena that plagues the men’s basketball team?
Losing 86-62 to Ball State last night, the Falcons dropped their tenth out of their last eleven games in Muncie, Indiana.
BG was in foul trouble from the opening minutes of the game and could not put together any runs to cut down the Cardinals’ lead as they lost their second consecutive Mid-American Conference game.
Discouraged by a season-high 30 personal fouls against them, BG was unable to stop the Cardinals’ offense and watched as Ball State hit 28 free throws, 17 more than the Falcons, to keep BG at bay for most of the game.
“We couldn’t keep them off the foul line in the second half and … we got beat pretty good tonight,” said Falcons head coach Dan Dakich.
Dennis Trammell scored a game-high 22 points for the Cardinals and Julien Mills connected on five three- pointers and scored 20. John Reimold led BG with 17 points and Josh Almanson scored 16, but he played in foul trouble most of the night and fouled out with over two minutes to play.
Ball State was able to take advantage of the Falcons’ early foul trouble, which saw starting forward Germain Fitch on the bench with two fouls just over a minute into the contest. With the game knotted at 14, Trammell had back-to-back three-point plays, with both fouls committed by freshman guard Perrick Robinson, that sparked a 14-4 run as they took a 49-37 lead into the locker room at half.
BG got within eight points at 68-60 with just over eight minutes remaining in the game after John Floyd hit one from the line, but continued to get called for fouls on the defensive end, some questionable, and saw the Cardinals finish the game on an 18-4 run.
It seemed as though nothing could go right for the Falcons all night. At the start of play in the second half and looking to cut the Cardinals’ lead to single digits, BG was stung by a four-point play by Mills after he hit a three and was fouled on the shot, pushing their lead back up to 16. On the previous play, Fitch missed a layup after stealing the ball, and the Falcons were torched by the six-point swing.
The Falcons were unable to find their shot as they hit 41 percent from the floor for the second straight game, after coming in connecting on a MAC-leading 50.9 percent for the season.
BG was also sloppy with the ball, committing 19 turnovers compared to just nine for the Cardinals.
The Falcons will look to bounce back this weekend when Toledo comes to Anderson Arena. The game is at 6 p.m. and will air on FSN-Ohio.
