Ball State won their second Mid-American Conference (MAC) Tournament Championship, their first since 2009, defeating Toledo 65-58 at Rocket Arena in Cleveland on Saturday to advance to the NCAA Tournament.
“I just am so thankful that these young ladies and their 11 teammates got to end this weekend on top of the ladder,” Ball State head coach Brady Sallee said postgame. “I don’t know how we got today done other than with toughness and just sheer want to.”
Sallee, who has the most wins in program history, finally won the big game after falling short of winning a tournament championship in his first 20 years as a head coach at Eastern Illinois and Ball State.
“I’ve been a head coach for 21 years, and this has alluded me, this championship has alluded me,” Sallee said postgame. “As I’m getting older, I’d lie to you if I didn’t tell you that this was something that was important. It’s always been [important].”
The miracle season for Toledo fell short, as head coach Ginny Boggess reached the championship game in her first season leading the Rockets.
“I told them when I took the job that their legacies were already cemented with the three championships, but if they let me coach them and they teach these young kids how to win, then their legacy will live on for a lot longer than just those three years,” Boggess said postgame. “You saw that. You saw how much they love each other. You saw how much they love Toledo. Our future is because of them buying in and letting us do our jobs.”
Senior forward Alex Richard dominated for Ball State, scoring a game-high 28 points on 13-21 shooting. She also tallied nine rebounds, two blocks and a steal.
“My teammates just found me,” Richard said postgame. “They just have so much confidence in me, so they really bring the dog out.”
Richard got hot late in the game, scoring 14 points in the fourth quarter.
“Credit to Richard, she really just went to another level,” Boggess said. “[Richard] was on one out there.”
The Cardinals controlled the paint, exerting their force near the rim against the Rockets.
Ball State outrebounded Toledo 33-24 while outscoring UT 40-30 in the paint.
BSU especially dominated on the offensive glass, grabbing 10 offensive rebounds compared to Toledo’s five.
“I think the big punch came from the offensive rebounds, Boggess said. “If they got 16 off turnovers and 11 off second-chance points, well shoot, there’s 27; that’s easy math. We made it a little bit harder than we needed to in those moments.”
While the matchup in the paint was fairly even on paper, foul trouble haunted the Rockets.
“Got into a little foul trouble with Jessica Cook, I thought we had the advantage inside,” Boggess said.
The first two quarters were tightly contested, with six tied and 11 lead changes in the game.
Toledo ended the first quarter on a 7-2 run, with the game tied at 14 apiece.
The second quarter was more back-and-forth action. However, the Cardinals were held scoreless for the final two-and-a-half minutes of the first half, with Toledo leading 24-21 as the teams headed to the locker rooms.
Ball State scored just seven points on 3-13 shooting in the second quarter.
After a rough first half, the Cardinals took over in the final 20 minutes.
“That second half, we looked different, the way set down and guarded, the way we talked, the way we played the next play,” Sallee said. “I thought that was really the difference in the first half and the second half.”
In hindsight, Toledo’s intensity was not the same in the second half.
“I think our focus was a little different that second half,” UT graduate guard Khera Goss said. “I think our communication was a lot better in the first half, where it kind of dropped off in the second half.”
Ball State closed out the third quarter on a 7-0 run, with a 3-pointer by senior guard Lachelle Austin giving the Cardinals a 43-40 lead going into the fourth quarter.
The final 10 minutes were much of the same, with Ball State going on a 9-0 run over nearly six minutes to take a 54-42 lead with four minutes remaining in the game.
Across the third and fourth quarters, BSU went on a monster 20-4 run that spanned nearly 11 minutes.
“I think we just started looking different. You could see it come across us like, it’s winning time, let’s go. In that little segment, they started just buying into what we had to do to win,” Sallee said. “We had to win; there was no other thought.”
Senior guard Ally Becki, the MAC Tournament Most Valuable Player, was the other Cardinal to score double figures, finishing with 12 points, seven rebounds, five assists and a steal.
Four Rockets scored in double digits, as sophomore guard Kendall Carruthers led the team with 17 points, graduate guard/forward Sammi Mikonowicz tallied 12 points, and Goss added 11 points.
After a 13-point and 15-rebound double-double in the semifinal win over Buffalo, Toledo graduate guard/forward Nan Garcia struggled against the Cardinals, scoring just three points on 1-8 shooting.
“Missed a little bit of the punch that we normally get from Nan,” Boggess said. “But again, we’re not here without Nan; we’re not playing today without Nan.”
With the win, the Cardinals are heading to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 16 years.
“By the way we’re playing right now, I feel like we could go far,” Becki said. “It’s March, so anything can happen.”
