Ypsilanti, mich. - After some hot three-point shooting in the first half and an 11-point run that lasted five minutes in the second half, Ball State downed Eastern Michigan Saturday night, 63-45.
Ball State's win marks the team at 1-1 in the Mid-American Conference and 8-5 overall.
It was a wide assortment of three-point shoots that lead the Cardinals to a 16-point lead at the half, most of which came in the middle of the first 20 minutes.
Chris Williams, Billy Lynch, Matt McCollom, and Petie Jackson all nailed treys as the team finished with eight threes in the first half. Jackson was the leading three-pointer shooter, hitting three for the game.
"That's what our bread and butter was at first, and teams have started taking that away," Jackson said. "We have been trying to find other ways to get the shot off. We did a lot of draw and kick and people were hitting the open threes tonight."
Ball State head coach Tim Buckley added that fast breaks helped open up the three-point arc for his team.
"We were able to get some because we were much better at running our break," he said. "I thought we caught them in a couple of rotations and our guys did a good job of finding the shooters."
In the second half, however, Ball State attempted only eight three-pointers compared to 19 in the first half.
Even without the three-ball in the second half, it was a strong five-minute run that secured the win for the Cardinals.
After Eastern Michigan's Markus Austin committed an intentional foul on Cardinal Theron Smith, Ball State started its final run of the game with about six minutes remaining in the contest.
At the time, Ball State had allowed Eastern Michigan to come within nine points. After the foul, however, Ball State went on its 11-point run.
Smith was the high-scorer Saturday, leading the Cardinals with 22 points. Smith completed his seventh double-double of the season after also pulling in 17 rebounds.
In rebounds, the closest to Smith was Eastern Michigan's Steve Pettyjohn, who had only nine. rebounds.
"He just keeps getting better and better," Buckley said of Smith. "I have really enjoyed watching him this year because he has not had a bad-effort day in practice."
After the game, Eastern Michigan coach Jim Boone wasn't that surprised with the outcome.
"We knew coming into the game we had our hands full," Boone said. "This is a good team."
The aspect of the game Buckley was most pleased with Saturday was his team's defensive efforts. Ball State held the Eagles to only 30.2 percent from the field.
"It's something we have emphasized to them over the past couple of weeks," Buckley said. "I hope now when we show the guys the stats they will understand."
With the strong defense also came active hands for Cardinals Saturday.
Ball State tallied 10 steals and forced 14 turnovers on the Eagles. Leading in steals was Jackson with four.
With those turnovers came a few extra points for the Cardinals. Ball State finished with 17 points off of turnovers.
Coming off the bench, Lynch played 17 minutes for Ball State Saturday. Lynch finished with three points and four rebounds.
"Billy is a real steadying influence," Buckley said. "He gets the ball in the right spot. That's what Billy brings to the team is the steadiness."
Saturday's win came after two consecutive losses to Oklahoma State and Kent State during the semester break. According to Jackson, Saturday's win was a welcome one.
"It feels good to get the monkey off our backs," he said. "We can finally regroup and start playing hard again.
"We just need to try to get on a little run here and try to get hot going into the conference season."
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