YPSILANTI, Mich. - For the Ball State University men's basketball fans who made the snowy trek up Interstate-69 and Interstate-94, the final score displayed on the Convocation Center's scoreboard depicted an image comparable to most speedometers braving the January interstate travel.
Ball State earned the upper hand with a 46-42 win against Eastern Michigan University Saturday afternoon, with intermittent rounds of applause seemingly hard to come by from the 843 spectators in attendance who were able to withstand the eight inches of snow in the area that fell Saturday.
In the early goings, the Ball State defense showed its hands in the faces of the opposition as it held Eastern Michigan to a season-low 13 points in the first half.
"I thought our defense was great [Saturday], and we want to use that to spark our running game," coach Billy Taylor said. "We need those transition points."
Taylor said his team's scoring opportunities in the fast break offense resulted in large part to a well-disciplined rebounding attack on both sides of the ball.
"[Rebounding] was a really great effort considering [Eastern Michigan] shot a low percentage from the floor," said Taylor of the Eagles' 28.6 percent shooting performance. "Eastern comes in averaging 13 offensive rebounds per game, and we limited them to seven."
Taylor's group had 43 rebounds, 11 of which were offensive rebounds.
"It really says a lot about our kids and their ability to be physical, aggressive and their ability to go after the ball," the second-year coach said.
To complement a fundamental victory on the boards, the Cardinals were able to create discord in the Eagles' offensive strategy through a pesky defensive effort, allowing zero fast break points.
"I would still like us to be more efficient in our transition game," Taylor said. "We had 10 fast break points, but I felt like we could have had a lot more had we finished plays and handled the ball cleanly."
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