Ball State Returns Home to Play Detroit Mercy

After a four-game road stretch in which Ball State went 1-3, coach Brady Sallee and his team will return home to play against Detroit Mercy tonight.

“Sometimes, it’s a long day in a hotel,” Sallee said of the slate of road games. “If you don’t go through that day the right way, you can be a little bit lethargic and it can end up working against you. We’re a work in progress. We’re learning how to win on the road and to have that road toughness.”

Detroit Mercy (4-3) has had success against Mid-American Conference opponents this season. The Titans are 3-0 against the MAC in 2012, with wins coming against Western Michigan, Eastern Michigan and Ohio. The team beat Western Michigan by 40 points — 97-57 on Nov. 28.

Something else Sallee learned on the road trip was the sense of togetherness that his team shared.

“Every meal we ate, we ate together; every time we got on the bus, they’re all sitting together, so that’s a good sign,” Sallee said. “As we begin to go through this, that kind of camaraderie is going to go a long way for us.”

Over the last four games, the Cardinals have struggled to shoot the ball. The team made just 38 percent of field goals during the stretch.

“The one thing I’ve learned in my 20 years is you can control a lot of things, but shots going in or not going in, you can’t,” Sallee said. “That’s something to work on when you get in the gym and get the shots up.”

Ball State is playing the perfect opponent to get out of its shooting slump tonight, especially from three-point range. The Cardinals shot 30.2 percent over the last four games, making four per game. The Titans’ opponents are hitting more than 36 percent of their three-point attempts, averaging almost seven per game.

Detroit Mercy’s best player is sophomore forward Shareta Brown. Brown leads her team in scoring so far, with 23.6 points per game.

In fact, she almost leads the country in scoring. Brown is just .5 points per game behind Florida A&M’s Jasmine Grice. Brown is the only underclassman in the nation’s top 10 scoring leaders.

“She’s a load,” Sallee said of Brown with a laugh. “[The Titans] do a great job of spacing the floor and getting her the ball. They don’t make it easy, there’s no question. They’re a well-coached team.”

Of Brown’s 165 total points this season, 49 of them have come from the free-throw line and 116 have come as field goals from inside the three-point line.

Brown is 0-5 from downtown in 2012, so Ball State shouldn’t have to worry about her long-distance game. She also leads Detroit Mercy in rebounding, pulling down an average of 10.3 rebounds per game.

Sallee gave a little insight into tonight’s strategy against the Titans.

“Our gameplan is going to be to try to slow Shareta [Brown] down,” he said. “We know where they want to get the ball. We’re going to try to keep it out of her hands as much as we can, because once she gets it down deep, it’s kind of game over.”