McCollom carries BSU
reshman aids Ball State in improved ball movement, has career-high game
Greg Fallon, Asst. Sports Editor
Heading into Tuesday night's game against IUPUI, the Ball State men's basketball team was looking for something or someone to smile about.
By the final play of the game the team found both.
Ball State, 3-2, marked its first regular season home win of the season in its home opener against IUPUI. Ball State downed the Jaguars 85-69 after leading by as many as 20 points at one point in the contest.
Mostly though, head coach Tim Buckley and his team were smiling about sophomore Matt McCollom.
The guard finished the game with a career-high 22 points and tied his career-high in assists with six on Tuesday.
IUPUI head coach Ron Hunter was not smiling.
"The game was won by Matt McCollom," Hunter said. "He won the game for Ball State. He was tremendous. He led that team even when they looked a little flat at times. He's becoming the heart and soul of that team."
Afterwards McCollom credited his team's defense to the solid offensive performance.
"I think for the most part it was just us coming out and playing a lot better defense," McCollom said. "We took a lot more charges than we usually do.
"Shots were open so I just took them. I was just trying to have some confidence and they just went down tonight."
McCollom finished the game making four of his seven attempted three-pointers. He shot eight-of-14 from the field.
"Matt really did a good job of playing within himself," Buckley said. "He didn't look to score, it just happened that way because he was just trying to play good basketball."
It wasn't just McCollom that aided Ball State to victory Tuesday, though. After Ball State's last two games, Buckley had stressed the importance of ball movement.
After the game against IUPUI Buckley was pleased with the movement his team showed on the perimeter.
"Especially the way IUPUI plays defense, it's really hard to run anything against them," Buckley said. "We just had to go play the game. We needed good recognition and the ability to find the open man."
Ball State finished the game with 22 assists as a team, the most assists Ball State has totaled since playing IUPUI last Dec. 15.
"We have been working a lot in practice on reversing the ball and looking for the open shots instead of just holding the ball," McCollom said. "Tonight we moved the ball well and the shots were wide open."
Leading the Cards in assists was Michael Bennett who also had a career-high night with seven assists and 11 points - both career-highs.
"Bennett is a great basketball player and he has a lot of basketball sense," Buckley said. "He knows how to play and he knows where the ball is supposed to go."
For the night, other leading scorers for Ball State included Cameron Echols who finished the game with 16 points and seven rebounds. Senior Chris Williams finished the game with 18 points after making four points in the first half.
From Tuesday's game, Buckley mentioned he hopes to improve in two areas - offensive rebounding and cutting down the opponents field goal percentage. IUPUI finished the game shooting 49 percent from the field. Ball State did out-rebound IUPUI on the offensive boards, but only by four.
Cates steps up as starter
Mike Genet n Chief Reporter
With Theron Smith out for the season, several players are being asked to step up in his absence.
One of those players is freshman center Kevin Cates, who drew a starting assignment and responded with 13 rebounds to help Ball State to an 85-69 win over IUPUI.
The 6-9, 230-pound Cates gathered six of those boards on the offensive end. He also finished with six points and four assists before fouling out with 4:21 remaining in the second half. The 13 rebounds were the most for a Cardinal freshman since Smith logged 15 at Indiana State three years ago.
"Coach has been talking about playing your role and not overdoing it," Cates said. "My strengths are defense and rebounding. I always got a couple assists a game in high school, although I'm not sure how."
Head coach Tim Buckley also talked about Cates playing within his role.
"Kevin's one of those guys we recruited not only because of him but because of where he comes from," Buckley said. "He comes from a very solid program (Marion High School), he knows how to play defense, and he knows how to rebound."
Cates said he didn't realize how many rebounds he was piling up in the first half (10).
"I just went out there and started playing and rebounding," Cates said. "I wasn't counting. I've got to go out there and do what I can, and getting that many rebounds, that's my main objective. I'm not a big scorer, but when I do get the chance, I put some up."
IUPUI coach Larry Hunter also recognized his impact, saying "Cates kind of hurt us on the glass early on."
In the second half, Cates had a putback as part of 15-4 run that put he Cardinals up 55-42 and provided ample cushion for the stretch run. He then buried a baseline jumper to cap the spurt.
"The area he has to continue to get better at is his offense, but I really liked the 15-footer that he knocked down tonight," Buckley said.
Buckley added that Cates brings tenacity to the court, but he is also unselfish.
"He plays hard and understands what it means to work," Buckley said. "He doesn't care who gets the credit or how he looks. He just wants to win.
"He's had to grow up over a week's time (with Smith's injury), and he's done a great job."
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