In its last outing, the NIU men’s basketball team attempted 46 free throws. Tuesday night on the road against Ball State, the Huskies shot just seven.

The result was similar, though, as NIU lost 69-63 to the Cardinals.

Each team had its share of problems heading into the game. However, the Cardinals improve to 6-22 (5-10 MAC) on the season, while NIU falls to 6-20 (3-11).

NIU made six of its seven free throws, while Ball State connected on 11-17.

“Apparently, they weren’t fouling us enough,” NIU head coach Ricardo Patton said. “We shot well, but we lost by six and they attempted 10 more free throws than us.”

The solid shooting from the field was led by guard Jake Anderson. The freshman shot 10-18 and scored a game-best 24 points. Heading into the game, Anderson was averaging 13.2 points per game.

He did, however, have five turnovers, which is an aspect of the game the Huskies have struggled with.

While 16 turnovers is below NIU’s season average, it was only able to force three Cardinal turnovers. The result was a 23-to-6 points off turnover differential in favor of Ball State.

“Unfortunately, some of our best offensive guys are not good defenders,” Patton said. “Turnovers are just empty possessions. We didn’t do a good job forcing enough turnovers.”

Ball State was led by junior Anthony Newell, who put up 23 points and grabbed six rebounds. Newell averaged 16.2 points per game heading into the contest.

The Huskies did have the edge on the glass, outrebounding the Cardinals 37-31.

While NIU forward Shaun Logan was not very active scoring, he did have a team-high 10 rebounds.

The Huskies have now lost eight of their last nine games.

“Right now, it’s all mental,” Patton said. “Sometimes, unfortunately, teams learn how to lose. We’ve just got to change our mentality.”