Unfortunately for the Cardinals, they held the first of those leads. However, their fortunes turned on a dime late in the first half, and Evansville surged to an 89-77 victory at the Ford Center to even the season series between the teams.
Ball State (6-4) saw its five-game winning streak come to an end, while Evansville (5-4) improved to 5-0 at home this season.
Tahjai Teague led the way for Ball State with 17 points and eight rebounds, while Tayler Persons (16), Trey Moses (15) and K.J. Walton (14) also scored double figures.
Shea Feehan led the Evansville charge with 29 points, hitting 13-of-14 from the free throw line, while John Hall was one of four other double-figure scorers for the Aces with 10 points and a game-high 10 rebounds.
It was all Ball State through much of the opening 20 minutes. The Cardinals shot 59 percent in the first half, led by highly efficient performances from Moses and Teague. BSU steadily built its lead to as many as 17 points, but then things changed quickly.
Evansville rode an 11-2 run into halftime after Feehan drew a foul from 25 feet out in the final seconds and hit all three free throws.
Things only got worse for the Cardinals after the break. Evansville grabbed the lead less than four minutes into the half and never trailed again. Feehan hit a pair of 3’s in the opening stretch of the half and converted three more free throws after being fouled again beyond the arc.
At the 12:39 mark of the second half, Evansville had scored 36 of the past 42 points in the game to turn aa 43-26 deficit into a double-digit lead. The Purple Aces eventually stretched the margin to 73-56.
“When they started to make a run, I thought we started pressing and two things (happened); we stopped having good possessions on offense, and we weren’t nearly as crisp on the defensive end,” Whitford said. “Shea Feehan has an incredibly high motor and really hurt us.”
Evansville made 27-of-30 from the free throw line for the game, getting the Cardinals into foul trouble. BSU starters Kyle Mallers and Tahjai Teague both had four fouls early in the second half.
The Purple Aces also rode a hot shooting stretch from the floor in the second half, connecting on 58 percent. Ball State shot just 37 percent after the break.
Ball State entered the game 3-0 this season against the MVC after last week’s win at Loyola. The Cardinals defeated Evansville 16 days ago, 82-72, in Muncie.
“I thought in the first game, we beat them to a lot of loose balls and a lot of rebounds,” Whitford said. “I thought, to Evansville’s credit, they took that personally and they were much better in that area tonight.”
Ball State will have a week off from competition for final exams before returning to action Monday, Dec. 17 with another in-state road game at Valparaiso. The contest will tip at 7 p.m. CT (8 ET).
(Courtesy of BSU Athletics)