Ball State's 66-49 victory over Miami on Wednesday proved that it takes a balanced offense to win a basketball game.
The Cardinals starting five scored a combined 52 points while the RedHawks' Courtney Osborn and Kirsten Olowinski combined for 34, more than two-thirds of their team's scoring.
Coach Kelly Packard said her team's balanced attack was surprising.
"The one that grabs your eyes is eight and eight," Packard said. "Eight [points] from [Katie Murphy] and eight from [Ebony Jackson]. Those are the areas we really struggled."
The RedHawks' size on the perimeter bothered the Cardinals early as they jumped out to a 7-0 lead.
Senior guard Ty'Ronda Benning had the difficult matchup of guarding the 6-foot-1 Rachael Hencke, the same height as senior Emily Maggert, for most of the night.
"I never guard someone as big as [Maggert] in practice," Benning said. "It's harder to distract her on a shot or to keep her from getting open looks. But I can handle it."
Packard said she was surprised by Hencke's size during the pregame.
"She looked bigger in person than she did on film," Packard said. "Being physical with her bothered her and trying to rotate enough people through, they were going to have to find a mismatch all night long."
Maggert's layup with 5:20 to play in the first half put Ball State up 19-17. It never trailed again.
In the second half, the Cardinals led by as many as 19 points and shot 57 percent from the field.
Ball State held Miami to 27 percent from the field on the game.
"This is a team we knew exactly what they were going to do," Packard said. "It's not a mystery. [Miami coach Maria Fantanarosa] runs the same offense every year, but they run it really, really well. To hold them to 27 percent is a compliment to the consistency to knowing what they were going to do."
Maggert finished the game with a double-double of 19 points and 13 rebounds. Benning finished with 13 points and six assists. Freshmen Brandy Woody and Murphy scored eight points each.
Osborn finished with 22 points and Olowinski finished with 12 for the RedHawks.
The Cardinals have won four out of their last five home games, something that Packard is happy about.
"It really changes where we are at in the standings and it changes the team," Packard said. "We struggled with self-confidence as a unit and a few people individually. It's been a place of individual growth of confidence, but now this unit has come together. You see more expression, more emotion and more intensity."
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