by Ball State men’s basketball continued its five-game road journey as the Cardinals set up camp in Easton, Pa., for The Lafayette Classic.
The first two games of the weekend did not go the Cardinals’ way. First, they fell to Monmouth 80-73. Ball State head coach Michael Lewis said Monmouth was the second-best team his roster has faced this season.
But in Saturday’s game against hosting school Lafayette, Ball State fell 55-37. It was the team’s lowest point total of the season thus far.
Lewis had one message to the team following the performance.
“I’m responsible for yesterday … You just try to remind them that it’s a game,” Lewis said. “Nothing changes just because you’ve gone from high school to college, or nothing changes just because there are some different benefits to what you’re doing now. Nothing changes just because some crazy dudes talk crazy on social media. It’s a game, and you play it because you love it.”
Yet in Sunday’s contest against Le Moyne, the Cardinals beat that total at halftime with 38 points. They went on to top the Dolphins 96-85 as senior guard Juwan Maxey led the way with a career-high seven 3-pointers, dropping 27 points. This also snapped a five-game losing streak.
“What they did today, that’s on those 14 guys in that locker room … They were having a blast, and they’ve earned that,” Lewis said. “I’ve coached in the final four, and I’m not sure I’ve ever been more proud of a performance than what those guys did today.”
Maxey’s outing began early as he hit three-straight 3-pointers to give Ball State a 9-0 lead. A Cardinal who has been struggling this season — and was just 30 percent from that range against Lafayette — Lewis said the team still trusted him with the ball in his hands.
“When that ball doesn’t go in, it’s easy to lose confidence,” Lewis said. “I think he realized after last night that everybody on this team and our coaching staff has a great deal of confidence in him … He went crazy today.”
But besides Maxey and his career night, he wasn’t the only one who found success. Freshman center Preston Copeland recorded a double-double with 10 points and a game-high 16 rebounds. With redshirt sophomore forward Kayden Fish playing through an injury, it was the boost Ball State (3-5) needed.
Lewis said this was something he thought Copeland was capable of doing when he first recruited him.
“I think he has an extremely high ceiling as a player. He’s very raw from an offensive standpoint, but physically, you can couple that with his athleticism and his ability to move,” he said. “He’s kind of like a blank canvas as far as what you can do with that and work with him. I think you’re seeing his offensive play grow, and he’s starting to understand schemes on both ends of the court.”
Besides those two, redshirt sophomore guard Davion Hill dropped 24 points, and senior guard Devin Barnes had 14 in the victory. Together, the Cardinals shot 47 percent as a team, grabbed 31 rebounds and had 17 assists with 10 turnovers.
The Cardinals will look to continue the solid play from multiple players, as the injury bug is hindering them. Lewis said junior guard Joey Hart is still out due to a foot injury and will undergo an MRI to evaluate the injury soon. While Fish is playing through his injuries, there is no timetable for graduate student forward Cam Denson
Lewis said he dislocated his toe and that it will take time for that to heal.
Ball State will next head to Evansville Wednesday, Dec. 3 for a road matchup at 8 p.m. Lewis said after this event, there is one major thing he has learned about his team.
“We got a chance. To go through [yesterday’s loss] and then to come out this way … I learned a lot about these guys,” he said. “This is what people don’t understand.
I’m supposed to have solutions and answers for these guys. I was very honest with them yesterday that I didn’t have an answer. I didn’t have a solution.
“It’s kind of dysfunctional, but as a coach, you learn a lot more through these relationships than they learned from you.
It’s just the facts, and I know it’s supposed to be the other way around, but it’s really not. I think I learned a lot from a coaching standpoint. I think those guys learned from a coaching staff’s standpoint in who they are, what they can become in their role and how to chase that stuff. That’s why you have a performance that you did today.”
Contact Zach Carter via email at zachary.carter@bsu.edu, zachcarter039@gmail.com or via X @ZachCarter85.
