Ball State men’s basketball falls to no. 1 MAC team Akron

Ball State men’s basketball began its road match with the Mid-American Conference’s (MAC) No. 1 team Akron with a solid first-half performance. Though the Cardinals continued the positive play to open the second half, the final five minutes of the game saw the red and white struggle, falling to the Zips 81-73.

“I don’t feel good about losses. We came up here to try to win for 30 to 34 minutes,” Ball State head coach Michael Lewis said. “We put ourselves in a position to do just that. So [I’m] disappointed with the result, but I thought our guys competed.”

Coming into the game, the red and white were 1-2 in their last three contests and knew this game was going to be a difficult one due to Akron’s undefeated conference record and the fact that only two MAC teams had held them to under 10-point deficits.

“These guys are far and away [better]. I think they’re the class of the MAC right now,” Lewis said. “…They’re kind of walking through this league.”

The contest started with both teams struggling from the 3-point line. The Cardinals (10-12, 4-6 MAC) opened the game going 0-for-6 while the Zips (17-5, 10-0 MAC) were 3-for-12. While Ball State finished the game 5-for-17 from deep, junior guard Juanse Gorosito — who has a 3-point percentage of .400 on the season — went 0-5.

The Zips also struggled to find them for the remainder of the game as they went 7-for-28. Due to the poor shooting numbers, the first half was a battle in the paint. Overall, both teams finished from the field shooting over 50 percent — Ball State went 28-for-51 while the Zips shot 35-for-65 — and with that, the first half continued to be tight.

“I think overall, we did a lot of really good things tonight,” Lewis said. “Akron is, like I said, the class of this league for many reasons.”

While Akron led the game 38-36 at halftime, the Cardinals fought back to tie the game 46-46 in the first few minutes of the second half. While the game stayed close for most of the period, the final eight minutes is when the Zips began to pull away. At the 5:45 mark, redshirt freshman Joey Hart hit a layup to cut Akron’s lead to 68-66.

However, the Zips responded with a 10-2 run after the Cardinals displayed poor defense and allowed Akron to take full advantage with easy baskets.

After that, the Cardinals could not find momentum to make a comeback.

“There’s a mental toughness when things get difficult that we’ve improved at, but we’re not where we need to be,” Lewis said. “When teams pick up the pressure, you have to be able to continue to execute. You’ve got to rely on your practice and your habits and that’s why we harp on those things every day … We’ve had to coach too much effort for a majority of this season.”

For the Cardinals to get better in those types of stretches, they think they just need to keep ‘grinding’.

“We gotta come together more,” redshirt senior forward Mickey Pearson Jr. said. “We all went separate ways … It’s hard to [be one unit]. If it was easy, a lot of people would do it. We just got to come together better in that time and execute down the stretch and get stops.”

Though a loss is a loss, there were some positives. Eight Cardinals scored in the contest and junior guard Jermahri Hill led the team with 19 points, seven rebounds and four assists. Behind him was senior center Payton Sparks with 15 points.

With the loss, the Cardinals sit in the No. 6 spot of the MAC and are in a four-team tie with Western Michigan, Eastern Michigan and Central Michigan. Ball State will see Akron again when the Zips come to Muncie Feb. 25.

But their next game will be a non-MAC game as the Cardinals will face Southern Mississippi Saturday, Feb. 8 for their second game in the MAC-Sun Belt Conference challenge. The game will be played at 2 p.m.

Following that contest, Ball State will start its final stretch of MAC play. With some of those games being against opponents they’ve already seen, the Cardinals believe they know what needs to be done to secure a spot in the MAC Tournament in Cleveland, Ohio.

“These last games, we just [need to] keep competing,” Sparks said. “I think we’re moving in the right direction. We just got to put all the parts and pieces together.”

Contact Zach Carter via email at [email protected] or via X @ZachCarter85.