For 20 minutes, Jauwan Scaife walked the the ball up the court and initiated the offense. By the end of the second half, he was the offense.
Isolated on the right wing or coming off baseline screens, it didn’t matter. At that point, anything the senior guard put up was going in.
With 1:05 left in the game, the 6-foot, 2-inch sharpshooter set up in the corner looking for any excuse to put up another jumper.
“I made eye contact with the ball handler, came off a screen and had a little bit of room, so I let it go,” Scaife said.
His 3-pointer gave Ball State (9-13, 3-7 MAC) a commanding four-point lead, and two more free throws by Scaife late closed out the 65-62 win over Western Michigan (15-8, 7-3 MAC) Saturday.
“We never covered down off of Scaife,” Western Michigan coach Steve Hawkins said. “I don’t know how many easy shots he got tonight, but we’ve seen him doing that for four years—hitting big shots when he’s healthy.”
Health was in issue Saturday with junior guard Jesse Berry—Ball State’s second leading scorer—out with concussion like symptoms, but it was an oft-injured big man that showed what a healing back can do for the Cardinals.
While Scaife carried the scoring load with a career-high 30 points on 9-of-16 shooting, junior forward Matt Kamienieckicovered the other areas.
Kamieniecki’s stat line of 10 points, five rebounds, two steals and one block doesn’t show the three charges he took and countless screens he set to get teammates open.
“He’s got a great way of doing all those little things and then he plays the game like I didn’t touch anybody,” Hawkins said. “That’s him and he does it well.”
The Clarkston, Mich., native was physical all game long, but nimble enough to step out on a dribble-handoff and block David Brown’s game-tying 3-point attempt to win the game.
Only Kamieniecki’s teammate matched his energy. Freshman guard Marcus Posley got his first career start Saturday with Berry out injured.
His strong on-the-ball defense on opposing guards was arguably the catalyst for Ball State’s 28-24 halftime lead. Posley also added 15 points, nine of those in the first half.
“They didn’t like pressure too much it seemed like,” Posley said. “Coach [Billy Taylor]always tells us to push up and work them and that’s what we had to do.”
The Cardinals did that all game, forcing the Broncos into 20 turnovers.
Ball State’s ball pressure pushed the lead to eight points, 36-28 early in the second half, but the game was never more than four points apart in the final 7:46.
Scaife’s shot making and clutch free throws—he went 9-of-10 for the game—sealed the win for the Cardinals down the stretch.
Saturday was Ball State’s first win in conference play at home. The team had lost its previous four games in Worthen, and Hawkins said his team didn’t match the Cardinals’ motivation and urgency.
“Most struggling teams aren’t just going to give in,” Hawkins said. “They came out, they got after it. I don’t think we met their energy. That got us behind.”
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