Jan. 20 will be the biggest game for the Ball State women’s basketball team this season as they go against Eastern Michigan University.
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Both the Cardinals and the Eagles are 12-4 on the season, but Ball State holds an advantage in the Mid-American Conference with a 4-1 record compared to Eastern Michigan’s 3-2 mark.
These two teams have proven history against each other. These MAC West division rivals played three times last season, including a head-to-head matchup in the MAC Tournament Semifinal game. While Ball State was able to pull away with a 72-62 point victory in the first meeting last season, Eastern Michigan would eventually get the best of Ball State. The Eagles would move on to win the following two games, which included the 75-65 blow that knocked the No. 2 seeded Cardinals out of the conference tournament.
All-time the series has been tight between the two.
In the 71 all-time series meetings thus far, Eastern Michigan has a slight edge, holding a 39-32 all-time series lead.
This is a home match-up for the Cardinals who have yet to face defeat at Worthen Arena this season. The team's eight home victories have come in dominant fashion as well; they have outscored opponents by an average of 18 points per game. The closest they’ve come to a loss was against Buffalo on Jan. 13, but Ball State still pulled away with a 5-point victory.
Success at Worthen Arena is something Eastern Michigan is familiar with, as well. The Eagles are 4-2 in Muncie since 2010, which includes last season’s 56-41 victory on Feb. 25, 2015.
What has already panned out to be an interesting matchup will feature two of the MAC’s top-four scoring leaders so far this season.
Ball State senior guard Nathalie Fontaine is second in the conference with 21.1 points per game, while Eastern Michigan’s Cha Sweeney is right behind with 18.1 points per game.
Interestingly enough, both of these two shooters were preseason voted in one and two all-MAC West team as voted by the conference’s coaches.
This matchup will boast four more of the conference’s top shooters. Each team has three shooters averaging double digits per game, and all six of them sit in the top-25 in points per game.
This will be a rare matchup for Fontaine as well, as she will be truly contested on the boards for the first time in a conference matchup this season. Fontaine is averaging 10 rebounds per game — good enough for second in the conference. But Eastern Michigan has two players, Philis Webb and Chanise Baldwin, who are averaging 8.2 and 8.1 rebounds, respectively.
Each team’s success was predictable from the beginning, as they have been following suit with the conference’s women’s basketball preseason poll released on Oct. 27, 2015.
Coming into the season, these two opponents were expected to do well according to the conference’s coaches. Eastern Michigan was picked to finish first in the MAC West over Ball State, but the Cardinals finished with eight first place votes compared to the Eagle’s four.
Out of each of the conference coaches who voted in the polls, both the birds received the same amount of votes for the 2016 MAC regular season champion (1) and 2016 MAC tournament champions (3). Both trailed behind Ohio, who dominated every category.
This will be a big test for the Cardinals because a loss would put them in a tie with the Eagles in the MAC West Divisional standing and wouldn’t bode well for future tie-breakers as the season continues to move towards the conference tournament.
Ball State has an opportunity to make a statement tonight at Worthen Arena, which will be big after the team’s biggest loss of the season against Ohio just two weeks ago.
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