Ball State's offense keys on making the defense move side-to-side.
Baseline picks and perimeter ball screens free up shooters on the outside or Preseason All-Mid American Conference power forward Jarrod Jones on the inside.
During the first half of Wednesday's game, Florida A&M prevented those openings by using a match-up zone on defense.
The Rattlers switched on screens and clogged the lane.
"They play a very athletic front line," Taylor said. "I didn't think we did a good job early on of using our shot fakes and going and finishing through the contact. A lot of times tonight we just tried to jump over them. They are very athletic so that makes it very difficult to finish."
Senior point guard Randy Davis nailed three 3-pointers in the first half to keep it close enough for Ball State to go on a run.
After twenty minutes of painfully slow offense, the Cardinals used more aggressive dribble-drives and shot fakes to take over the game.
Ball State shot 60.9 percent in the second half and went on to win 70-55 in front of 2,736 fans in Worthen Arena.
Davis and Jones finished with 15 points to lead the team while sophomore forward Chris Bond added 14.
"I think it was kind of important to hit a couple," Davis said about his three-point shooting. "I heard it every day in practice from my teammates and coaches to continue to shoot. We want you to shoot. Comments like that which keep you going. I've had a couple good days at practice and I think it really paid off."
Ball State's offense eventually found the formula to beat the match up zone by using one of its own.
For much of the game, Florida A&M's junior forward Amin Stevens was either too big or too quick for various Cardinals defenders. That's when Ball State coach Billy Taylor made the switch.
"We had to because we were cross-matched a little bit," Taylor said. "There were times when they went three guards and we had a lineup that wasn't conducive to guard them. There were other times when they moved Stevens to the three. Once he started making some jump shots on Matt Kamieniecki, that wasn't a good match up for us. We just tried to do something to throw them a little off balance and fortunately it worked for us tonight."
Once down by a significant margin, Florida A&M began settling for quick shots and Ball State turned its plus-three rebounding margin into points on the other end. The Cardinals' 40 points in the second half put the game out of reach.
A&M shot 34.8 percent for the game and Stevens finished with a game-high 21 points.
Taylor was positive in the post-game press conference, but acknowledged his team was far from perfect.
One of those imperfections was free throws. At one point in the game, Ball State was 8-of-16 from the line. They finished 15-of-24, but Taylor said with MAC play right around the corner, little things often times mean victories.
"I'm glad we knocked them down to close it for us; that is a positive," Taylor said. "But we want to knock them through the course of the game. Especially when possessions become very important to you in conference play. You really don't want to leave any points on the free throw line. We've done that quite a bit this year. We have to get back in that comfortable rhythm. It was something that helped us win close ball games last year."
Ball State opens conference play Saturday when they take on Western Michigan at home. Picked 1-2 in various polls, Davis said a win to start could lead to big things.
"Whoever wins is going to have some momentum going into the next one [game]," Davis said. "They are a good ball club. So are we, so it's going to be a good game."
Read More
'We know what we need to do:' Ball State softball looks for MAC Tournament berth in final regular season series
By Zach Carter / 10 hours agoBall State will end it's regular season with a three-game series at Central Michigan. The Cardinals are currently the No. 6 team in the Mid-American Conference while the Chippewas are the No. 5 seed.
Yorktown baseballs’ offense stalls early, falls to Shelbyville
By David Moore / 23 hours agoWith few conference games left on the schedule, this was an important series for the Tigers. However, in the end, the Golden Bears swept the season series over the Tigers with an 11-6 victory.
‘Last piece of the puzzle:' Ball State softball is graduating 10 seniors after the 2023-24 season, all of whom impacted the program farther than the stat sheet.
By Zach Carter / 2 days agoA packed senior class has helped lead Ball State to success on the field and in the locker room.
