Whenever a new coach with a different system steps into a program, one has to wonder how successful they'll be that first season. Projecting 20 wins for Ball State University women's basketball coach Kelly Packard may have been a lofty goal, but she said it has been a goal of hers since November.
"Twenty wins has been a goal of mine, personally, that I set mentally in November and didn't show with [the team] until two weeks ago," Packard said. "When I set it in November I really felt like, looking at the schedule, we'll have to grind out 20 wins. Now, all the sudden, when I finally shared it two weeks ago, I realized that we were playing well enough and positioned well enough at that time to be past that."
The Cardinals (20-8, 12-2 MAC) defeated Western Michigan University 80-61 on Saturday in Worthen Arena to fulfill that goal set by Packard three months ago. Ball State is now 13-1 at home this season and has not lost to a Mid-American Conference team in Worthen Arena.
Packard said earlier this week that rebounding was going to be a key against the Broncos (7-20, 3-11 MAC).
"We highlighted rebounding," Packard said. "This is a team that leads our conference in offensive rebounding. I'll take a four plus on the overall rebounding margin against this team because that's something they are very, very good at."
The Cardinals pulled down 37 rebounds including 14 offensive rebounds that led to 17 second-chance points.
In their first meeting this season, Western Michigan out rebounded Ball State 37-27 - including 19 offensive rebounds, which is the most allowed by Ball State in conference play.
Packard said Western Michigan would come out with a physical game and the Broncos delivered. Western Michigan committed 17 personal fouls and grabbed 16 offensive rebounds. Forward Danielle Gratton said she took it upon herself to tell her post players to be the aggressors.
"Before the game, I got the post together, and I said, 'We kind of got bested the last game'. They came out and they were the aggressors," said Gratton, who was the game's leading scorer with 18 points.
Gratton said they were expecting the physical play in the second match up.
"I think we really came out with a different attitude this time," Gratton said. "We weren't backing down. We were expecting it, but we were also matching it."
After not scoring in the first half, guard Audrey McDonald came out in the second and scored 15 points for the Cardinals. She was 3-6 from behind the arc and was perfect from the free-throw line.
Ball State's leading scorer on the season, forward Emily Maggert, was also held to zero points at then end of the first period. Maggert scored five points in 24 seconds in the beginning of the second half. The Cardinals' scored 15 points in the first six minutes of the second period to stretch the lead to eight.
Guard Kiley Jarrett said she needed to get Maggert and the others involved more in the second half, and she did. Five of Jarrett's six assists came after halftime.
Jarrett said the flow of the second half was better. Pushing the ball up the court at any opportunity helped the Cardinals stretch the lead to 19.
"Coach talked about pushing the ball up the floor, even on a made basket, and I really tried to focus on that," Jarrett said. "The past couple games, I have noticed myself walking the ball up the floor and that's just not my style of play and that's not the style of play of this team."
Senior guard Porchia Green continued to fill up her overall stat sheet for her career at Ball State. Green finished the game with a double-double with 12 points and ten rebounds, five of which were offensive boards. She also had six assists and a steal.
Packard said she was obviously proud of what her team did on Saturday.
"I felt like particularly from the nine minute mark of the second half to the end, we executed about as well as I've seen us in our offensive sets," she said. "I said we haven't peaked yet, we haven't played our best game, but there were parts of that second half that were maybe our best offensive execution yet."
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