by Ball State hosted the Mansfield Mountaineers Friday, Nov. 7, in their second game of the season. Mansfield held their own against the Cardinals for a long time.
Ball State had a slow first half only leading 32-28 at the midway point, but everything started to click to take a comfortable win at home and avoid an upset.
Cardinals started cold but turned it on
Ball State had trouble from the jump in this one. Kayden Fish committed two fouls in the first three minutes of the game, but ended up finding some rhythm by contributing seven points and a rebound in the team’s win.
Ball State shot over 50% against Louisiana, but started this game slowly shooting the ball. The Cardinals shot 20% in the first three minutes and would go on to shoot 39% from the field at the end of the first half.
They would turn it up as the game went on. Ball State’s scoring shot up by scoring 52 second-half points compared to 32 in the first half. The Cards ended up shooting 60% in the second half and 50.8% for the entire game.
Defense/Rebounding
The Cardinals struggled offensively shooting and turning the ball over, but their defense was forcing Mansfield to give up the ball. Mansfield had 11 first half turnovers which largely contributed to Ball State holding on to a first half lead.
The second half was a different story for their paint defense. They could get Mansfield to go away from giving up some easy baskets on cuts from Mansfield’s offense.
Ball State started getting consecutive stops past the midway point of the second half to grow their lead to 12 with 7:06 left in the game.
Ball State also won the rebounding battle against Mansfield. It was a tight race for a long time, but the Cardinals brought down 42 rebounds compared to Mansfield’s 33 boards. Armoni Zeigler grabbed 9 rebounds to help lift Ball State.
Second-half gamers
The Cardinals got their legs under them in the second half scoring 12 points in the first five minutes of the second half.
They cooled off later into the half but some fast breaks got them to a double-digit lead around the 8-minute mark in the second half.
They didn’t start actually separating themselves from Mansfield until there were seven minutes left in the game. The Cards, at that point in the game, grabbed their biggest lead of the night and kept building.
More stops and fast breaks would break the game open for the Cardinals to end up with a comfortable win.
Ball State wound up with a 30-point victory with a score of 84-54 after taking control of the game in the back end of the second half.
Ball State will travel to Wisconsin for a matchup on Nov. 11 for a test against a team that is currently in the AP Top 25.
