After 90 career games, Shanee’ Jackson doesn’t think she’ll get nervous before Ball State’s season-opener against Evansville.
“I honestly don’t think I’ll have any jitters,” Jackson said. “I’ve been playing basketball since I was four. There [are some] jitters for a couple seconds, but after those couple seconds, it’s gone.”
Ball State won its exhibition opener against Oakland City on Oct. 31, 88-26. But Evansville looks to be a more difficult challenge Friday night.
One challenge the Cardinals will have to face is the height of the Purple Aces. Evansville has six players that are at least six feet tall.
“[Evansville has] some size on us,” Ball State coach Brady Salleesaid. “I think it’s going to be a battle of tempos. We’re going to try to slow it down. They’re going to try to pound it inside.”
Sallee said his team will try to keep the ball out of the post.
Protecting the post looks to be difficult for Ball State on Friday against 6-foot-2-inch Evansville forward/center Samantha Heck.
Heck, a senior, started all 30 games for Evansville last season, leading the team in both points-per-game with 13.3 and rebounds-per-game with 7.2.
Heck scored nine points in Evansville’s exhibition win over Southern Indiana. She also had a team-high of 15 total rebounds.
Also on the Purple Aces’ roster is 6-foot-3 junior Miranda Liles. Despite her size, Liles played sparingly last season. However, it’s unclear if she’ll be able to play against Ball State. She missed her exhibition game due to a foot injury.
Sallee said the team’s rotations will look similar to the ones used in the exhibition game.
“We don’t have a lot of options,” Sallee said. “The interesting thing is that we played eight people in that exhibition game, and nobody played over 30 minutes, [which were] pretty solid minutes from everybody.”
