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Saturday, January 2, 2021

Rally Falls Short vs. Ohio - BallStateSports.com

MUNCIE - Down double figures early in the game, the Ball State men's basketball team rallied to take the lead but Ohio made the plays late to win 78-68 at Worthen Arena on Saturday afternoon. Ball State (4-4) is now 2-1 in MAC play with a home game coming Tuesday vs. Western Michigan.

Ishmael El-Amin led BSU with 18 points while Miryne Thomas had his best game as a Cardinal with 17 points, eight rebounds and four assists.

THE TURNING POINT: After a putback by Brachen Hazen cut Ohio's lead to 68-64, Ohio made a final push. The visitors scored the next six points in three straight possessions to go up 74-64 with 2:47 left. A dunk by Thomas got the Cardinals within 74-68 with 1:30 left, but Ohio scored lay-ups on the next two trips to ice the game.

STRAIGHT FROM THE COACH: "One, I want to credit Ohio," head coach James Whitford said. "It was a couple weeks ago they were the talk of the league, particularly after almost beating Illinois. They were coming off three straight losses and looked like a desperate team and they played a really good game. I want to credit them. Our first couple minutes of the game, we were out of sorts and it took us 8-10 minutes to settle in and after that we became ourselves. We just need to get better defensively. We had good enough numbers to win the game on offense. What we gave up on defense isn't good enough. And that's the story of this game. We need to become better defensively."

CARDINAL COMEBACK: Before either team could work up a sweat, Ohio had built a 26-11 lead. Ball State then settled in and handily won the second 10-minute stretch on a 26-16 run to close the first half down just 42-37. Ball State came all the way back to tied the game at 46 and led 50-49 on a dunk by Ben Hendriks. The Cardinals never led by more than one point as Ohio had an answer for every rally by Ball State.

'WE NEED MIRYNE TO BE THAT GUY': After the game, Whitford lauded Thomas for his performance and said the team will thrive if it gets the production Thomas displayed against Ohio. Thomas scored a career-high 17 points on 7-for-9 shooting and made three 3-pointers to help Ball State stay in the game in the first half. He also grabbed eight rebounds and added a career-high four assists.

HOT SHOOTING: Ball State's shooting is starting to find its form after a slow start early in the season. The Cardinals hit nine 3-pointers (seven by El-Amin and Thomas) and shot 36% from the arc and 46% for the game. That follows BSU's best shooting game of the season, when it shot 52% in a road win at Western Michigan. Over the last two games, the Cardinals are shooting 55-for-112 (.491) with 18 made 3-pointers.

Ohio (5-4, 1-2) had five players score in double figures and combine for all but two of the team's points. Ben Roderick scored 20 points and hit 6-for-9 from 3-point range. Mark Sears, in a bigger role for injured Ohio star Jason Preston, had 18 points, eight assists and six rebounds. Ohio shot 7-for-18 from 3-point range and shot 55% for the game.

UP NEXT: Ball State will stay at home Tuesday when it hosts Western Michigan. The Cardinals won 76-68 at WMU just before Christmas.

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Rally Falls Short vs. Ohio - BallStateSports.com
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