After picking up two Mid-American Conference wins on the road in Michigan this past week, the Ball State University women's basketball team returns to Worthen Arena to take on Western Michigan University at 1 p.m. Saturday.
Although they beat both Central Michigan University and Eastern Michigan University on the road, coach Kelly Packard said she doesn't think the Cardinals (19-8, 11-2 MAC) are playing their best basketball.
"I definitely do not feel like we have seen our team's best performance," Packard said. "I don't think we've peaked whatsoever and all of those things, I actually think, are positives because we need to be improving."
Packard said the team obviously wants to peak in March during the MAC tournament in Cleveland.
"I think we definitely have grown," Packard said, "and having the chance now to play teams a second time in the MAC West allows us to go back and really critique the film the first game that we played against those teams."
Ball State played at Western Michigan (7-18, 3-9 MAC) on Jan. 2, and beat the Broncos 70-67.
"I can so clearly see how we've improved," Packard said. "We've seen shimmers of great ball."
Packard said some of the "great ball" occurred when Ball State played Miami University and Kent State University.
In the game against Miami, Ball State committed only nine turnovers in a 15-point win. While defeating Kent State 77-70, the Cardinals outrebounded the Golden Flashes 45-25, including 17 offensive rebounds.
In order to go 2-0 against Western Michigan, the Cardinals will have to slow down one of best rebounding teams in the MAC.
"Western Michigan leads the conference in offensive rebounding," Packard said. "We gave up 19 offensive rebounds when we played in Kalamazoo. They've rebounded well consistently."
Western Michigan outrebounded Ball State by 10 in their first contest.
"I'm not going to walk into practice [Thursday] and teach them new rebounding techniques," Packard said. "We've got many and worked on them. I just think right now for us it's a matter of implementing those and having a focus to do that."
The Cardinals did shoot well against Western Michigan in their game to make up for the Broncos' offensive rebounding performance. Ball State shot better than 50 percent from the field and made 10-of-22 3-pointers. Junior guard Audrey McDonald led the Cardinals in scoring with 19, including five from behind the arc.
Packard said this late into the season, wear and tear affects most every team, but said her team benefited from last week's break.
"I think last week, getting the bye week and having the chance to give the players three days off, was hopefully a big restoration time for us," Packard said. "We've played a lot of basketball but the bye week came at a very good time for us."
In actionWhat: Ball State vs. Western MichiganWhen: 1 p.m. SundayWhere: Worthen Arena
Read More
Three Air Jam teams take home the win
October 12, 2012Nineteen teams shimmied, shook and flipped for a sold out John R. Emens Auditorium on Thursday night during the 25th annual Air Jam.
Bill Clinton Speaks at North Central High School
October 12, 2012Former President's Speech Could Have Effect on State Senate Race
