By Dustin Dow
The Cincinnati Enquirer

MUNCIE, Ind. - In its first road game of the season, Xavier University learned there are going to be some growing pains if the Musketeers are going to approach last season's 26-6 record.

Xavier struggled to score in the second half Tuesday night against Ball State, and as a result, lost its first game of the season, 75-63 to a hot-shooting Cardinals team.

Xavier, on the other hand, made just three field goals in the final 10:21 of the game and went nearly eight minutes without scoring as Ball State broke open a back-and-forth game.

Sloppy defense, even worse shooting and an intense Ball State attack dropped Xavier to 3-1 this season, with Indiana University waiting Saturday in Indianapolis.

"We didn't show up," Xavier coach Thad Matta said. "That comes to lack of concentration when you go on the road. You have to focus. ... Nobody's believed me when I said this, but this team has a long way to go."

Leading 40-36 coming out of halftime, Xavier quickly allowed two Ball State 3-pointers and found itself trailing by two points just over a minute into the half. Ball State (1-0) then went up by five, but Xavier fought back repeatedly, cutting the margin to one until freshman Justin Cage tipped in a basket that put Xavier back ahead, 56-55 with 10:21 to play. Less than 10 seconds later, Ball State's Dennis Trammell converted a layup and the Cardinals ran away from Xavier from there.

"How we were up by four points at the half, that was a travesty," Matta said. "We should have been down 20 at halftime. Come out in the second half, we just couldn't make a basket to get a little bit of momentum going. We really did a bad job of tying our defense to our offense tonight."

Had junior Keith Jackson not tipped in an uncontested shot with 15 seconds left, Xavier would have scored just one field goal over the final eight minutes.

Ball State's quick lineup and perimeter screens forced Xavier go with a smaller lineup of its own for most of the game. It worked, or at least prevented Ball State from blowing open a big lead until the Musketeers started missing shots late.

"We wanted to stay doing what we do," said Trammell who scored 11 points. "That's fast-break, a running offense and play them tough."

Ball State's Robert Owens gave the Cardinals a lift off the bench in the first half with 16 points, most on long jumpers away from Xavier's interior defenders. Owens finished with a game-high 23 points and keyed Ball State's defensive effort.

"I don't think Xavier was expecting us to come out like that," Owens said of Ball State's second-half surge. "It was a team thing for us, stopping their main guys. We knew (Romain) Sato likes to shoot the 'J,' and (Lionel) Chalmers does everything out there. We knew we just had to stop him."

Chalmers and Sato, Xavier's leading scorers entering the game, combined for 14 points on 5-of-25 shooting, including 1-of-11 from 3-point range. Sato did not score until more than three minutes into the second half.

"As a senior, you definitely put it on your shoulders," Chalmers said. "And we just couldn't make shots tonight."

Sophomore point guard Dedrick Finn hit three 3-pointers and scored a team-high 15 points.

E-mail ddow@enquirer.com

Xavier	M	FG	Att	FT	Att	R	A	F	TO	TP
Myles	20	2	4	2	2	6	2	1	2	6
Caudle	9	3	3	0	1	0	2	2	1	6
Chalmers	33	3	16	0	2	3	3	3	4	7
Sato	24	2	9	3	3	4	0	3	4	7
Finn	35	6	9	0	0	1	2	4	3	15
Cage	23	1	2	2	2	4	0	1	0	4
Doellman	21	2	4	1	1	5	0	4	0	6
Jackson	26	5	14	0	0	6	1	0	0	10
Cole	9	1	2	0	0	3	1	1	0	2
Totals	200	25	63	8	11	35	11	19	14	63

Team rebounds - 3.

Ball State	M	FG	Att	FT	Att	R	A	F	TO	TP
Echols	27	3	6	2	2	10	1	2	1	8
Chapman	18	4	8	2	4	5	1	3	2	12
McCollom	26	2	3	2	2	2	3	3	2	6
Stovall	32	3	9	2	3	1	7	4	2	8
Trammell	31	5	11	0	0	4	3	3	2	11
McClung	21	2	3	0	0	1	1	1	3	5
Owens	29	8	10	4	4	4	1	0	2	23
Mills	10	0	2	2	2	2	0	2	0	2
Howland	6	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0
Totals	200	27	52	14	17	31	17	18	15	75

Team rebounds - 1.

Xavier	40	23	-63
Ball State	36	39	-75

3-pointers - XU 5-17 (Chalmers 1-9, Sato 0-2, Finn 3-4, Doellman 1-1, Jackson 0-1), BS 7-13 (Chapman 2-4, Stovall 0-1, Trammell 1-3, McClung 1-2, Owens 3-3). Technicals - None. Officials - Clark, Mayborg, Drury. Attendance - 5,325.