The Ball State University women's basketball team will take on Ohio University - its last Mid-American Conference East opponent for the regular season - at 1 p.m. Saturday in Worthen Arena.
The Bobcats (8-14, 4-6 MAC) have lost four of their last five games this season but have a balanced team and "a couple of kids that just play really, really hard," Ball State coach Kelly Packard said.
"I don't think [Ohio's offense has] been super consistent, but they definitely have the personnel to give you some headaches on the offensive glass," Packard said. "They got a couple players that consistently go for extra attempts on the offensive end."
The Cardinals (16-8, 8-2 MAC) have a balanced offensive attack as well. In conference play, the Cardinals' starting five players all average 9.8 points per game or more, and are led by sophomore forward Emily Maggert's 13.8 points per game.
Packard said sometimes teams can key on one or two players with a defensive plan any Cardinal is capable of leading the team in scoring on any night.
"I would like to think it's not as easy to devise a defensive strategy against us," Packard said. "We don't have one player carrying the bulk of our offensive production. We've been very, very consistent at having three, and many times four people finish a game in double figures."
In order for the Cardinals to pick up their 12th win of the season at home, they will have to limit their turnovers, Packard said.
"We played a good game [Wednesday] night," Packard said. "I really felt like from the rebounding standpoint as happy as I've ever been with rebounding ... but we turned the ball over 23 times."
Packard said she was "fairly happy" with Ball State's results thus far against MAC East opponents, besides the first half against Bowling Green State University on Feb. 3. Ball State lost 67-76 to Bowling Green.
The Cardinals are 4-1 against MAC East opponents this year.
"What stands out to me particularly was the Miami game here," Packard said. "I thought that was a great basketball game that we put together. [Wednesday] night, outside of the turnover column, we certainly did a lot of good things, particularly defensively. I think our east showing has been solid."
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