Following the Ball State University men's basketball team's 60-54 win at home against Northern Illinois University on Tuesday, the Cardinals (7-7, 2-0 Mid-American Conference) jumped ahead of the University of Akron as the No. 2 scoring defense in the MAC, trailing only Miami University.
Through the team's first two conference games this season - wins against the Huskies and Eastern Michigan University - the Cardinals are allowing 48 points per game - almost 13 points per game fewer than Ball State's defensive scoring average in all games. The Cardinals are allowing 60.9 points per game this season, not too far behind Miami's defensive average of 59.1.
Coach Billy Taylor, a defensive-minded leader, said he expects his whole team to buy into the defense-first mindset.
"Because our identity is on our defense, it doesn't matter who you are in our 13, 14, 15 guys on the roster," Taylor said. "We expect our guys to be able to defend and know the game plan and hear the game plan, defend and rebound."
Rebounding has also not been a problem for the Cardinals when looking at the MAC statistics. Ball State ranks third in the league in rebounding margin at +2.3 rebounds per game and averages 36.2 boards per game.
Seniors step up in Newell's absence
Taylor was quick to praise his seniors following Tuesday's home conference-opening victory. In their first game without leading scorer and rebounder, senior forward Anthony Newell - who suffered a season-ending broken right leg in the Eastern Michigan game - it was senior guard/forward Rob Giles who filled in Newell's spot in the starting lineup. Giles scored a career-high 11 points on 3-of-7 3-point shooting.
Giles, with the combination of the two remaining seniors - guards Brandon Lampley and Laron Frazier - combined for 30 points, six rebounds and nine assists to four turnovers against Northern Illinois.
"Obviously Anthony is one of those seniors and he gets a lot of that attention, but Brandon Lampley's started a lot of games in his career at Ball State. Rob Giles, whether starter or coming off the bench, he's played everything from the two-guard to the center for us and has done it without a complaint," Taylor said. "Laron Frazier battling back from a hand injury really got himself back as quickly as possible to help his team. Those guys have been tremendous and their leadership is what has allowed our freshmen to keep growing."
Giles said his career night was a credit to his offense's execution.
"I got Lamp, Randy [Davis], Laron to thank for that," Giles said. "Good penetration, people keying in on Jarrod [Jones], so my 11 points was really team 11 points for everybody keying in on everybody else allowing me to get open shots."
Things get a bit chippy
Freshman guard Pierre Sneed was the recipient of the Cardinals' first technical foul of the season in the Northern Illinois game.
With 33 seconds remaining in the first half, freshman center Jarrod Jones was called for a shooting foul and found himself the subject of some unhappy Northern Illinois teammates. Sneed came in, and after a few words were exchanged, was one-half of a double-technical foul called on Sneed and Northern Illinois sophomore guard Jake Anderson.
Lampley said after the game that the physicality of the game was in his team's advantage.
"I think a lot of games are physical, but [the referees] let us play at times - I think that's an advantage to us when we really play good defense because we can get people off-balance," Lampley said. "They also tried to get up into us, so I think when we drove the ball strong and stayed aggressive, that's when we got our best opportunities."
Next up: Central MichiganBall State looks to extend its MAC winning streak to open the conference season to 3-0 as it travels to Central Michigan University for a 4:30 p.m. tipoff on Saturday. For a complete preview of the game, read Friday's edition of The Ball State Daily News.
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