Darrell Lampley scored 13 points and Eastern Michigan pulled away in the second half to beat Ball State 61-50 on Saturday.
Antonio Green scored 10 points and J.R. Sims added nine for Eastern Michigan (13-16, 8-6 Mid-American), which maintained sole possession of first place in the Mid-American West with the win.
Ball State (13-14, 4-10) let at halftime 22-20, but after a jumper by Green to put the Eagles up 26-24 at the 17:56 mark never led again. The Cardinals fell behind by 10 on a jumper by Lampley, but sparked a 7-0 run to trail 43-40 with just under eight minutes remaining before succumbing to a 9-3 Eagles run that ended with 2:44 left to render the deficit unreachable.
Tyrae Robinson led with 17 points and Jarrod Jones contributed 14 for Ball State, which lost despite shooting 48 percent from the field to Eastern Michigan's 36 percent.
