by The Ball State Cardinals were in Naples, Florida for their slate of two games in the Florida Gulf Classic. They downed Pittsburgh in their first game on Friday, and they took on the Alabama A&M Bulldogs on Saturday.
While Ball State is coming off a win against Pittsburgh, the Bulldogs have lost their last five games. Some of those games were losses to Ole Miss, Alabama and Cincinnati.
In the first half, Ball State struggled the shoot the ball. As a team, they shot 38% total from the field and shot just 2 for 15 from beyond the arch.
One player was able to step up and lead the way through the first half. Ball State forward Aniss Tagayi gave the Cardinals a much needed boost early on.
In the first half, Aniss Tagayi led the Cardinals in the big three stats entering the midway point. Tagayi had eight points, six rebounds and two assists going into the half.
Coach Sallee for Ball State talked about Tagayi’s performance.
“It was good to see because we’re built that way,” said Sallee. ” Here’s a kid that can catch it, rip it and lay it up. She got active on the boards, and she played very well.”
Tagayi went on to finish the game with 12 points, eight rebounds, four assists and three steals. In the end, Tagayi led the Cardinals in scoring.
After staying under 20 points in each quarter in the first half, the Cardinals came out hot in the third quarter. Ball State won the third quarter 22-9.
Coach Sallee spoke about the third quarter scoring spark for Ball State.
“We played from defense to offense. We were getting stops, rebounding the ball, and our pace, our tempo, in transition just went to another level,” explained Sallee. ” A lot of that was Tessa (Towers) who was dominating the boards. Karsyn (Norman) was playing really fast, and we were getting open looks.”
Against the Bulldogs, some other key players for the Cardinals were Tessa Towers with four points and 10 rebounds, Bree Salenbien with 11 points and six rebounds, and Giorgia Gorini with five points, five assists, and four rebounds off the bench.
In the end, Ball State shot 43% from the field and 27% from beyond the arch. The Cardinals pulled down 56 rebounds as a team and forced 15 turnovers.
There was never a doubt about this win for the Cardinals. The only thing Ball State had working against them was 19 turnovers, but it didn’t seem to show in the final score. The Cardinals won by a score of 70-38 in their Florida Gulf Classic finale.
Alabama A&M slides to a 1-6 record. Their next game will be against Tuskegee at home on Thursday, Dec. 4.
Ball State improves there record to 7-1 after Saturday’s win. Next week, the Cardinals will be back in Muncie to face Oakland City on Wednesday, Dec. 3.
