Ball State Rallies from 11 Down in Final 2 Minutes to Win
Second straight comeback Overtime win for the Cardinals.
MUNCIE, Ind. -- There apparently is no deficit too large to make Ball State quiver in the
Collegeinsider.com Tournament.
The madness for the Cardinals men’s basketball team in March continued Sunday night. Ball State pulled
off another victory when it appeared a deep hole it had dug was too large to spawn an improbable
comeback.
But this never-say-never group never said never for the second straight game. Ball State wiped out a
second-half deficit that was as large as 16 points and was still 11 with 1:56 remaining.
A furious rally allowed the Cardinals to tie the score at the end of the second half, and they came from
behind again in the final minute of overtime to dispatch UT Martin 83-80.
The victory, five days after wiping out a 20-3 deficit at Tennessee State to claim a 78-73 win in double
overtime, advanced Ball State to a quarterfinal matchup at 7 p.m. Wednesday at Columbia. The Lions
received a bye in the second round of the CIT.
“This is an unbelievable win,” Cardinals coach James Whitford said. “We have a knack for playing for 40
minutes, and this is why you do. It was a great ending for us. You never give up. You keep fighting.”
The situation appeared bleak for the Cardinals (21-13) when UT Martin (20-15) rolled to its largest lead
of the game at 60-44 with 8:30 remaining in the second half.
Though the deficit was smaller, the Cardinals’ odds of winning appeared even less likely when they
trailed 71-60 with 1:56 left in the second half.
But Ball State stormed back to score the final 11 points of the half. Four of the points came on two free
throws each by Bo Calhoun with 1:15 to go and Sean Sellers with 18 seconds left.
“Getting points with (the clock stopped) gave us more life to keep playing and playing hard,” Cardinals
forward Franko House said.
House completed the comeback on a layup to tie the score 71-71 with eight seconds to go. UT Martin
turned the ball over with 1.4 seconds left. A long inbounds pass to Jeremie Tyler led to his 6-foot shot on
the baseline, but the ball hit the side of the backboard and the game went to overtime.
The Cardinals had never played an overtime game in the postseason before this year, and they’ve been
in two the past five days.
“Once we tied it up, it was so surreal for us,” House said. “We couldn’t believe it almost. At that point,
we knew we could win this game.”
Sean Sellers positioned the Cardinals for a victory early in overtime. He scored on a layup on their first
possession, hit a 3-pointer from the left wing and made two free throws.
He was a little off balance on the 3, but the shot was pure.
“It was kind of where I got the ball at that point of the game,” Sellers said of his scoring burst in
overtime. “The 3 I shot and hit, I kind of had a guy on me, but I knew the game was close and I thought I
could get it over him. Luckily, it went in.
Whitford wasn’t surprised by what he saw from Sellers.
“In high school and AAU, the bigger the moment, the bigger he played,” Whitford said. “When the
pressure is on, he’s one guy who has a lot of experience playing in pressure games. … He’s always had
that ability.”
Sellers’ free throws with 54.5 seconds left gave Ball State an 81-80 lead. After UT Martin missed a short
shot, House added two free throws for an 83-80 margin with 11.3 seconds to go. The Cardinals dodged a
long 3-pointer by UT Martin’s Kedar Edwards at the buzzer.
“We just tried to stay focused, get stops on the defensive end, and work our way into offense with our
defense,” House said of the mindset when the game got close.
Whitford said his team probably wasn’t positioned early this season to make the kind of comebacks it
has in the past two games.
“We’ve improved a lot from November to now,” he said. “There’s a lot to be said about having that will
to win and dig into it at a deeper level. I would love for us not to have to dig in as much as we do, but
I’m glad we have that gear when we need it.”
Ball State placed five players in double figures, including House and Calhoun with double-doubles.
House had 10 points despite an off shooting night and a career-high 13 rebounds. Calhoun delivered 17
points and 12 rebounds while coming off the bench after starting the previous 31 games.
Whitford said the mini-slump Calhoun has been in prompted him to replace Calhoun with freshman Trey
Moses.
“It was kind of weird for me, and I was kind of frustrated, I’m not going to lie,” Calhoun said.
Whitford made a 3-minute highlight video of some of Calhoun’s best plays of the season to show him
how he was capable of helping the Cardinals.
“I wanted him to understand it wasn’t personal,” Whitford said. “It was just about giving our team the
best chance to win.”
The pounding of the boards by House and Calhoun helped the Cardinals to a whopping 49-32 edge in
that department. UT Martin had an 18-15 edge in rebounding in the first half, but the Cardinals had a
34-14 advantage in the final 25 minutes.
Ball State’s 17 offensive rebounds, its second-highest total of the season, led to a 25-6 edge in secondchance points.
“The fact we outrebounded them by 17 is amazing,” Whitford said.
Sellers tied Calhoun for team scoring honors with 17 points, his second-best total of the season. Sellers
made 3-of-6 shots from the 3-point line and all four of his free throws.
Moses and Tyler chipped in with 12 points apiece.
UT Martin’s Twymond Howard led all scorers with 26 points. The 6-foot-6 senior forward had 22 points
with 12:53 left in the second half. He scored only four more the rest of the game with House doing most
of the defending on him.
“Franko stepped it up,” Whitford said. “I don’t think he necessarily anticipated how good Twymond
Howard was, and he’s a lot like Franko. He’s an undersized, athletic 4-man who gave us and Franko a lot
of problems on both ends.
“Down the stretch, Franko just dug a little deeper … made him shoot some tough shots.”