The Ball State University men's basketball team's defense was "Thinking Arby's" for last night's game against Mid-American Conference West Division preseason favorite Western Michigan University.
As part of a promotion with the athletics department, any time the Cardinals hold an opponent to less than 50 points in a home win, fans who show their ticket stub from the game can buy an unlimited amount of 50 cent Arby's roast beef sandwiches the following day at any Muncie location.
Enjoy your sandwiches.
The Cardinals held the Broncos to a 27.5 percent shooting performance in a 50-44 victory Tuesday in front of 3,018 fans at Worthen Arena, ensuring the roast beef deal for the fans and a tie with Western Michigan atop the MAC West standings for the team.
"I'm just really thrilled for our guys for their performance [Tuesday] against Western, who I think it one of the elite programs in the MAC," coach Billy Taylor said.
Ball State (8-8, 3-1 MAC) didn't fare too much better on the offensive end, either. The Cardinals shot 34.6 percent from the field, and 11-of-25 (44 percent) from the free throw line.
Western Michigan coach Steve Hawkins said he was pleased with his team's defensive effort, but he said when they struggle offensively as they did against Ball State, it would've taken "perfect" defensive effort to win the game.
"You've got to give Ball State credit," Hawkins said. "We missed a lot of shots and that really ended up being it."
Western Michigan (6-11, 3-1 MAC) made 14-of-28 3-point attempts in Saturday's 71-52 win over Northern Illinois University, which tied for the second most 3-point makes in a game in program history. Tuesday, the Broncos shot 6-of-22 from beyond the 3-point arc.
"We knew that we just couldn't get stretched out that far in trapping the post," Taylor said. "So we tried to stay a little bit tight to their shooters, try to make sure that we could contest threes and just try not to give them any open looks."
The Cardinals trailed 20-14 with 3:16 remaining in the first half before senior guards Brandon Lampley and Laron Frazier helped bring Ball State back in the game. Lampley hit a 3-pointer with 1:30 remaining in the half to make the score 20-17, and Frazier got his own putback off a layup attempt with 18 seconds remaining in the first half to put the Cardinals down one, 20-19, going into halftime.
Freshman center Jarrod Jones gave the Cardinals the lead at 21-20 nine seconds into the second half with a dunk, and the continued the momentum swing for Ball State throughout the half.
"We've come out flat at the start of every second half this year, and it's just lack of focus, lack of details and it's just the little things," Western Michigan forward Derek Drews said. "It's just mental lapses that we don't carry over from the first half."
The Broncos' last lead was 34-32 with 10:20 remaining in the game, but Hawkins said the physicality of Ball State players like sophomore forward Malik Perry and freshman forward Mo Hubbard eventually wore down his team's inside attack.
"Perry, Hubbard - kids like that, that are big, round bodies - were a lot more physical and proved to be a big difference with the contact inside than our thinner bodies," Hawkins said.
With 7:38 remaining in the second half, senior guard/forward Rob Giles found Frazier for a 3-pointer that put the Cardinals up 39-35, which proved to eventually be the momentum swing needed to win the game.
Lampley had a team-high 16 points on 7-of-8 shooting in a starting role for the Cardinals, including going 2-for-2 on 3-point attempts. Frazier had 10 points off the bench, including seven rebounds and two assists.
Ball State also out-rebounded Western Michigan 43-39 for the game. Perry and Jones both finished with a game-high 11 rebounds.
The Broncos were led by Drews' game-high 17 points and a team-high eight rebounds. Junior guard David Kool, who came into the game fourth in the MAC in scoring at 16.9 points per game, was held to 11 points on 4-of-10 shooting from the field.
"Defensively, we just wanted to play good team defense," Lampley said. "Kool [is] a big and strong guard that can score inside-outside, so we just had to be tuned into him at all times."
Ball State next plays the second game of a two-game home stand Sunday as it hosts the University of Toledo (4-14, 2-2 MAC) for a 2 p.m. tipoff at Worthen Arena.
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