Ball State University men's basketball coach Billy Taylor was fed up with his team's effort just one minute and 13 seconds into Monday night's game against North Carolina Central University.
Taylor said his starters were "sleepwalking" through the motions, and the Eagles jumped out to a quick 6-0 lead off a dunk by the Eagles' C.J. Wilkerson.
So Taylor called timeout. In came Malik Perry, Brawley Chisholm, Myron Green and John Green. Out came Terrence Watson, Randy Davis, Jauwan Scaife and Pierre Sneed.
Perry, Chisholm, and the Greens joined starting center Jarrod Jones, and it didn't take long for the momentum to swing Ball State's way.
Perry scored 12 first-half points in his first non-start of the season, and anchored a dominating frontcourt performance as Ball State defeated North Carolina Central 59-45 in front of 2,873 fans at Worthen Arena.
"I really liked the way our guys bounced back," Taylor said. "We didn't have the energy that I certainly wanted or anticipated. But I give a lot of credit to the guys that came in off the bench."
Perry, who finished with a game- and season-high 17 points on 7-of-11 shooting from the field with an added six rebounds and two blocks, said starting or not, he just tried to be a spark whenever needed.
"I've just got to create energy for us to get boosted up and get that defensive start or take a charge or things of that sort," Perry said. "I just wanted to come off the bench and get some energy because we seemed a little lackadaisical. Once that happened and the starters came back in, then we started pushing it."
The Cardinals (4-5) outscored the Eagles (2-10) 18-4 in the paint in the second half. Jones improved from a four-point effort in the first half to finish with a double-double — 16 points and 10 rebounds — and Watson, a senior forward, also reached double-digits with 12 points.
"Our frontcourt is big for us," Jones said. "We get a lot of points in the paint. We had three post players in double-figures, and that's great, and when that happens it opens for [the backcourt] so we can kick it out and they can get easy 3-point shots."
Taylor said he was especially pleased with his team's sharing mentality against the Eagles. The Cardinals finished with 17 assists on 22 made shots from the field, including four each from two freshmen guards in Scaife and John Green.
"It's nice to have everybody handling the basketball well, finding open people," Taylor said. "The key thing behind that is going in and finishing, and we did miss some layups in the first half, but we did a better job in the second half converting all those plays in the painted area."
Dijon Manns finished with a team-high 13 points for North Carolina Central, while Wilkerson scored 11 and Nick Chasten scored 10 points and grabbed a team-high seven rebounds and a game-best three blocks.
Monday's game broke a two-game losing skid for the Cardinals, and was the first of what could be a successful three-game homestand for the team. Ball State hosts Maryland Eastern Shore on Dec. 28 before hosting NCAA Division III Manchester College on New Year's Eve.
For continuing coverage of the Ball State men's basketball team over Winter Break, check back with bsudailynews.com.
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