March 5, 2011
Final Stats
Final Box in PDF Format 
2011 MAC Men's Basketball Tournament Bracket
Ball State 67, Northern Illinois 57
Worthen Arena | Muncie, Ind.
|
|
|
1st |
2nd |
Final |
Northern Illinois
|
23
|
34
|
57
|
Ball State
|
38 |
29
|
67
|
|
|
|
| Player of the Game |
 |
Tim Toler
Points: 17
FG: 7-16
Rebounds: 10
Assists: 3
|
|
Team Stats
|
NIU |
OPP |
FG Percentage
|
40.0 |
48.0 |
| 3-Point FG Percentage |
35.0 |
38.1 |
| FT Percentage |
40.0 |
42.3 |
Offensive Rebounds
|
16 |
5 |
| Defensive Rebounds |
29 |
22 |
| Total Rebounds |
45 |
27 |
Assists
|
17 |
16 |
Turnovers
|
16 |
7 |
Blocks
|
1 |
3 |
Steals
|
2 |
9 |
Points in the Paint
|
20 |
24 |
Points off Turnovers
|
8 |
19 |
|
|
| |
MUNCIE, Ind. - The Northern Illinois men's basketball team fell 67-57 in its regular season finale at Ball State on Saturday afternoon. The Huskies fell behind by 10 in the opening four minutes of the contest and, although they played the Cardinals even the remainder of the game, were unable to overcome the early deficit.
Junior forward Tim Toler led NIU with 17 points and 10 rebounds, his second double-double of the season. Sophomore guard Tony Nixon added a season-high-tying 11 points off the bench.
"We knew coming into the game that (Ball State) would come out with great energy, being senior day," said NIU head coach Ricardo Patton. "They did a good job both inside and outside early in the game and we also had 11 turnovers in the first half."
Northern Illinois out-rebounded Ball State 45-27 in the contest, junior forward Tyler Storm set a career-high rebounding for the second-straight contest with seven boards.
Ball State raced out to an early 11-1 lead in the first four minutes of the contest. The Cardinals made five of their first six shots to open the game while holding NIU without a field goal in its first three attempts until redshirt freshman guard Antone Christian slowed the Cardinal run with a triple to cut the lead to seven, 11-4.
Following the Christian triple, Ball State went on a 9-0 burst until a basket by freshman forward Nate Rucker ended the Ball State run with the Cardinals leading 20-6 with just under nine minutes remaining before halftime.
Toler started to ignite the Huskie offense with nine-straight points as NIU went on a 9-2 run to cut the Ball State lead to 31-15.
The Huskies trimmed the Cardinal lead to 13, 34-21, as senior guard Michael Patton and Christian connected on back-to-back triples, forcing a Ball State timeout.
Northern Illinois went 4-of-10 from beyond the arc in the first half.
Ball State's Juwan Scaife made the final basket of the first half as the Cardinals took a 38-23 lead into halftime. Jesse Berry led all scorers with 11 points in the opening 20 minutes; Toler had nine to lead Northern Illinois in the first stanza.
Ball State shot 51.7 percent (15-of-29) from the field in the first half and had 11 assists on its 15 field goals. NIU shot 35.0 percent (7-of-20) in the first half. The Cardinals outscored NIU 14-4 in the paint and 16-4 off of turnovers.
A triple by Patton and a layup by Storm cut the Ball State lead to a dozen early in the second half, the Cardinals answered with an 8-0 run until Nixon ended the Ball State burst with a trifecta with 15:13 to play in the second half and Ball State leading 48-31.
Northern Illinois cut the lead back to 15 on a couple of occasions, but Ball State had an answer, pushing the lead back to 20 with 4:48 remaining.
The Huskies refused to quit, outscoring Ball State 15-5 in the final five minutes to create the final 10-point margin. Nixon had nine of his 11 points in the second half, Patton and Storm each had six in the second 20 minutes as NIU outscored Ball State 34-29 after the intermission.
Berry led Ball State with 17 points; Scaife added 16 points and Jarrod Jones chipped in 14 for the Cardinals.
Up next for Northern Illinois is a MAC Tournament First Round matchup at Bowling Green on Tuesday, March 8. The No. 7 seed Falcons will host the No. 10 seed Huskies at 7 p.m. ET at Anderson Arena.
