Jan. 10, 2004
Box Score|
Notes
MUNCIE, IN - Toledo (9-3, 3-1 MAC) suffered its first conference loss of the season with a 95-71 setback this afternoon at Ball State (5-6, 2-1 MAC). The points allowed by the Rockets were a season high and the Cardinals' 52.9 field-goal percentage was the highest by a UT opponent this season.
Senior guard Keith Triplett led Toledo's attack with a game-high 25 points to become the 34th Rocket to surpass the 1,000-point barrier in his career. The Toledo native now has 1,006 points as a Rocket in 71 games for a 14.2 career scoring average. Ball State featured a balanced attack led by the trio of senior Robert Owens (19 pts.), senior Cameron Echols (18 pts.) and junior Dennis Trammell (18 pts.).
Toledo's only lead of the game came on a breakaway layup by sophomore Sammy Villegas following a steal for the first basket of the game. The Cardinals responded by scoring eight straight points and surged to a 19-7 advantage midway through the half. The closest UT came the remainder of the contest was five points at 25-20 with 5:47 remaining in the first half.
"That was probably the worst basketball game I've ever been associated with in my life," Head Coach Stan Joplin said of his team's showing. "It was just a terrible display of basketball. I don't know what team was out there, but if we continue to play like that, we're going to make a lot of teams look good."
The Rockets were fortunate to trail by just a 34-22 margin at halftime after committing a season-high 15 turnovers in the first half and shooting 31.0 percent from the field.
"How can you have 15 turnovers in the first half against a team that didn't pressure you," Joplin said. "I never thought I'd say this, but maybe this is good for us. We didn't get any hustle points. We were just too cocky. We didn't have the fight I've seen in past games. It wasn't even close."
Toledo will look to regroup from its setback on Wednesday, Jan. 14 when it hosts Marshall (5-5, 2-1 MAC) for a 7:00 p.m. tipoff at Savage Hall. The Thundering Herd will visit MAC West Division leader Western Michigan (9-1, 3-0 MAC) on Monday, Jan. 12 before coming to Toledo.
