CLEVELAND, Ohio – They finished the regular season tied for the Western Division lead (along with Western Michigan), all three teams 7-9 in conference (and all three well under .500 overall). But Ball State won the tiebreaker, therefore the second seed in the MAC Tournament, and thus a bye two days ago. Central Michigan had to play on Tuesday, eliminating Eastern Michigan 62-49.
This was a game pitting a more athletic guard-oriented team (Ball State) against a more powerful – though slower and less flexible – forward-oriented team (Central). And Central did everything they needed to do to win – almost. Now, they didn’t do it right away, as led by the early scoring of senior guard Laron Frazier (22 points for the game on 8-15 shooting), Ball State went up early, and led twice in the first half by as many as eight, 17-9 after two free throws by Freshman of the Year Jarrod Jones at the 9:00 mark, and then again 23-15 after a trey by senior Rob Giles at 14:40.
While Frazier was handling the scoring load, fellow senior guard Brandon Lampley was putting the defensive clamps on Central’s Robbie Harmon, who’d scored 13 against Eastern, holding him without a field goal for the first 39 minutes of the game. And shockingly, early on Ball State was winning the boards against powerful Central, ahead 13-10 in rebounds at the under-12 media timeout.
But Central hung tough, got to a pace more to their liking (slow, slower, slowest). Ultimately Central got control of the boards too (pace and boards are the formula for Central), leading 18-15 in rebounds at the half (and 39-27 for the game). And Central got off two shots to Ball State’s one in the last minute of the half, and a mini-5-0 run in that last minute pulled the Chippewas within one at the intermission, 29-28.
They got slower still in the second half, with the offense coming from second guard Jordan Bitzer (13 of his 18 after halftime, shooting 6-14 for the game). And they kept pounding the boards with center Marcus Van (8 boards) and power forward Jacolby Hardiman (7) leading the way. But behind Frazier, Jones and Giles, Ball State rebuilt the lead in the second half, going up by six at 48-42 at the 14:48 mark when Frazier hit a jumper, and again at 50-44 when Jones hit from in close on an assist by Lampley at 15:26.
Each time Central fought back, scoring eight of the last 10 points of regulation over the final three and a half minutes. First a jumper by Bitzer, set up by Harmon, at 16:39. Then came Harmon’s only field goal of the game at 17:44, followed by another jumper by Bitzer at 18:23. And after Jarrod Jones gave Ball State a two-point lead with a jumper at 18:48, Hardiman tied the score at 52 and was fouled at 19:21, but missed the ensuing free throw. But Central managed to rebound the miss with :39 left (Bitzer, who else, who ended up with 6 rebounds, in addition to his 18 points), and then their worst possession of the game ended terribly. A basket by Van at the buzzer would be disallowed, as the buzzer was obviously for ticks beyond the expiration of the shot clock. Central had a foul to give, and then Giles missed a desperation trey at the buzzer, forcing overtime.
In overtime, Central got an early lead on the strength of Bitzer’s shooting, and was up 59-56 at the 2:02 mark. But the rest of the game belonged to Ball State, who outscored Central over the final 2:44 by the same margin Central had benefited by in regulation, 8-2. Laron Frazier had four of those final eight points. Finally, when Frazier hit two free throws with just 11 ticks left for a 64-59 lead, there were no more comebacks left for Central, and a meaningless basket by Hardiman in the final seconds made the final score 64-61.
Ball State Coach Billy Taylor was humble in victory, pointing to having to overcome Central’s strength on the boards all night long. He was proudest of his senior guards, Frazier and Lampley, who won the game for him at the offensive and defensive ends, respectively. When a reporter asked Lampley if he could overlook his 2-9 shooting in light of having held Harman to three points, Taylor interjected that “the coach can overlook Lampley’s 2-9.”
Central Michigan Coach Ernie Ziegler acknowledged our question about clock management in the last minute of the first half, taking advantage of a “two for one” and scoring the last five points of the half. “But I wish we’d have been cognizant of time and score in the last minute of the second half, when we ended the most important possession of the game with a shot-clock violation.” Ziegler added that “the Ball State kids are tough-minded, and used that to beat us tonight.”
As to his own team, he was glad we asked about the fine second half play of Jordan Blitzer. “In our league, Bitzer is underappreciated, he’s a really good player, and a really tough player,” Ziegler said.
We’ll have to wait for next season to see more of Bitzer, but we’ll see the Ball State group tomorrow night in a conference semifinal against Buffalo
