A cold shooting night in which the Toledo women's basketball team struggled to take care of the ball cost the Rockets in a key Mid-American Conference game on Wednesday night in Savage Arena.
Toledo shot 31.1 percent from the field and committed 22 turnovers as Ball State held on for a 60-58 victory in a pivotal conference game as Ball State came in in third place and Toledo was a game behind in fourth place.
Despite the shooting and turnover woes, the Rockets (11-11, 6-5 MAC) gave themselves a chance at the end thanks in part to forcing 21 Ball State turnovers.
Toledo had the ball out of bounds underneath with 0.5 seconds left trailing 60-58. The Rockets ran out-of-bounds action that left Tanaya Beacham open under the basket. But Ball State's Blake Smith recovered and denied the last second attempt from Beacham.
Toledo point guard Mariella Santucci, who inbounded the ball, said the play went how it was drawn up except for the finish.
“It was just a play that we run and we actually had what we wanted, but it just didn't go our way,” Santucci said. “She had a wide open catch and a shot that got contested. Foul or no foul, at that point it's not up to us, but we did what we wanted to do.”
Toledo coach Tricia Cullop said she wasn't sure from her angle if there was contact on the contest by Smith and there should have been a foul called on the play, but either way it was a tough break for the Rockets.
“We knew one of the kids was going to be open heading to hole,” Cullop said of the play. “She had a good look. Maybe it just got blocked. From my angle it was hard to tell. It was awfully close. A game is 40 minutes long, so is it really decided in the last four or five seconds or could you have done something the whole game long to change the outcome overall? We are going to look back on this one and see plenty of things we could have faced.”
Toledo scored before the opening tip when Nakiah Black made two free throws following an administrative technical foul on Ball State prior to the beginning of the game.
Ball State started a different lineup than they officially submitted prior to the game, which caused the technical.
The first half was back and forth with seven ties and five lead changes. Ball State led 14-12 after one quarter. Toledo led by two points at 19-17 after Santucci made a layup. The Rockets then went on a four-minute scoreless drought and Sydney Freeman made a late layup to send the Cardinals into halftime with a 23-22 lead.
Toledo missed its first 10 3-point attempts before Tatyana Davis finally connected from deep late in the second quarter. The Rockets shot just 26.7 percent from the field in the opening half.
Ball State led by as many as seven points in the third quarter and took a 37-35 lead into the fourth.
Black hit just the second 3-pointer of the night for Toledo to open the fourth quarter and give the Rockets a one-point lead. After an answer from Ball State, Toledo would never lead again the rest of the way.
With Toledo trailing by three points, Black missed a potential game-tying 3 with 40 seconds left. Then with Toledo trailing by two points, Davis missed a 3 that would have put the Rockets ahead with 11 seconds left.
Arbrie Benson then missed two free throws keeping the score 60-58. After an initial out of bounds play from Toledo was tipped away underneath the basket, that set up the play to Beacham at the end.
Toledo made just 5 of its 23 3-point attempts in the game and turned the ball over too many times in a matchup between two of the better defensive teams in the league.
Santucci scored her 1,000th career point during the game as she led the team with 16 points. Davis added 12 points and Black had 10 points.
Jasmin Samz led Ball State (16-7, 8-3 MAC) with 15 points.
“I think what you saw was two of the better defensive teams in our league,” Cullop said. “If there is one thing we have in common it's that we value defense. I knew it was going to be a low scoring game coming in and both teams had to really work for the looks they got...I think this team is really capable of doing more than we did tonight. We just have to keep trying and get better. Tomorrow at practice we have to work on our shooting and make sure we are able to hit some against Kent State on Saturday.”
First Published February 13, 2020, 3:30 a.m.
