Erica Cotton's confidence is at an all-time high. Cotton has scored a career-high 17 points in each of the last two games and has recently emerged as a scoring threat for the women's basketball team.
"I've just been playing with a lot of confidence," Cotton said. "I think my confidence is building off of my teammates and me individually. It starts in practice and I just try to carry it over to the games."
Cotton is shooting 41.6 percent from the field this season, fifth best on the team. Her shooting is an improvement over last year when she shot 29 percent.
"My shooting percentage is going up over the last couple of weeks and it's showing in games," Cotton said. "I've been getting a lot of shots in [during practice]."
Another reason for Cotton's shooting improvement is related to her health. Cotton redshirted her sophomore year due to a foot injury and was hobbled last season with a shoulder problem.
Now that Cotton is healthy, aside from catching an elbow just above the eye against Miami on Wednesday, coach Tracy Roller is looking for Cotton's offensive emergence to continue.
"We knew she had it in her, but she was never healthy enough to show it," Roller said. "This year she is playing really well because she is healthy and her confidence is high."
Ball State University (10-7, 3-3 Mid-American Conference) will host Akron at home on Saturday. The Zips have just three wins on the season and are 0-6 in the MAC.
Roller said Akron plays really hard. She wants the Cardinals to improve on certain aspects such as matching the other team's intensity.
"We've got to start better than we have," Roller said. "We've got to rebound better than the last couple games and we've got to get our post players more involved."
Slow starts have hurt the Cardinals in the conference season. Miami jumped out to an 18-5 lead on Wednesday and Northern Illinois led 16-8 early on Saturday.
Roller said she is looking for the Cards to play a full 40 minutes.
"We have the team to do it - we have the potential to do it," Roller said. "Akron would be a great chance for us to prove we can do it."
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