With eight days in between games, the Ball State women’s basketball team used the extra downtime to focus on the student part of student-athlete.
Coach Brady Sallee said his team didn’t practice a lot during the week. His players hit the books to prepare for exams.
“We took advantage of a little bit of downtime to try to get some people healed up,” Sallee said.
However, Ball State was able to practice Friday and Saturday to gameplan for Sunday's game against Illinois State.
“Overall, I thought it was a fairly productive week,” Sallee said. “You just never know what you’re going to come out of exams looking like.”
After injuring her ankle on Dec. 6, and missing one game because of it, junior forward Katie Murphy will play against Illinois State.
“She’ll be in there rocking and rolling,” Sallee said.
Ball State will definitely need her to defend against Illinois State sophomore Janae Smith.
Smith, a 6-foot-2 forward, is averaging 14.9 points per game for the RedBirds. She is also leading the team in boards with 7.9 rebounds per game.
Smith is part of a group that is gathering over 40 rebounds per game. Ball State is averaging just 33 per game.
“They’re good,” Sallee said simply of the Redbirds. “They’re really good. They’ve got some size in the post that clearly we have to be aware of.”
Despite Smith’s scoring, she doesn’t even lead the team in points.
“Jamie Russell is scoring the ball for them really well on the wing,” Sallee said. “She presents a challenge for us.”
Russell is averaging 16.3 points per game for Illinois State. She’s shooting 38 percent from the field, but has been near-perfect from the free throw line. Russell has made 26-of-27 this season from the charity stripe.
Sallee also sees another threat in the RedBirds offense.
“And then they bring in a kid, who may be their best player, off the bench in Candace Sykes,” Sallee said.
Sykes has played in six games this season, but started none of them. She’s third on the team in scoring, averaging 13.3 points per game.
Sallee had nothing but praise for Illinois State and its offense.
“They’ve got some depth, they’ve definitely got some talent, they can shoot the ball,” he said. “They play really fast and they’re very disciplined. They’re a good basketball team that plays well at home. We’ll have our hands full for sure.”
The game will start at 1:05 p.m. Sunday, and with Mid-American Conference play looming, Ball State will need every win it can get.
“It’ll be interesting to see how they answer the bell [Sunday],” Sallee said.
