Going into Wednesday’s game, Brandy Woody’s career high in points was 18. Her career high in rebounds was nine. Her career high in minutes played was 38.
Throughout the game against Buffalo, she set new marks for all of those catagories.
In Ball State’s 69-55 win, the junior point guard scored 29 points and grabbed 11 rebounds in 39 minutes of play. She also hit a season-high four 3-pointers in the contest.
“She had that look in her eye,” Ball State coach Brady Sallee said. “She was hitting the 3-ball. We were setting a lot of high ball screens for her. She could get to the rim. But she was playing off her defense. That defense turned to offense. Honestly her game didn’t look a whole lot different, she just shot the ball that well tonight.”
She also tied her career high in steals with seven.
Woody also went 9-of-10 from the free-throw line. As a team, Ball State shot 31-of-39 from the foul line.
Although the box score said that Woody played 40 minutes, Sallee said he took her out for about a minute.
At 5-foot-4, she was tied for the shortest player on the floor with Buffalo’s Karin Moss.
One factor that could’ve impacted Woody’s performance was the lack of freshman Nathalie Fontaine in the game Wednesday.
Fontaine, who was leading Ball State in scoring and rebounding coming into the game with 12.7 and 6.1, respectively, missed the game after tweaking her back in a practice this week.
Sallee said it’s day-to-day, but he hopes she’ll play on Saturday against Ohio.
“It just locked up on her,” Sallee said. “It’s loosened up quite a bit, so hopefully it keeps loosening up and keeps reacting the right way.“
Not only did Fontaine miss the game, but her fellow forward, Katie Murphy also played limited minutes due to foul trouble. She played just 12 minutes and had four rebounds.
“We needed somebody to step up,” Sallee said.
Two of the players who did step up for Ball State were senior forward Shanee’ Jackson and sophomore guard Shelbie Justice.
Jackson, who is 5-foot-8, scored 15 points and grabbed nine rebounds in 38 minutes of play, mostly playing at the center spot.
Justice played 36 minutes and scored 11 points.
Sallee said the injury and Murphy’s foul trouble made him alter his lineup throughout the game.
“We almost had to play five guards. Literally. We had to put Shanee’ down low, and we had Shelbie, a guard, at the four spot. We just kind of winged it,” Sallee said.
Sallee said that Woody’s defense helped everybody else, as she was a part of a team that forced 30 Buffalo turnovers.
“She’s understanding how she has to play, how she can impact the game just by guarding that ball,” he said. “She was just special tonight. It was one of those nights as a coach, you just really enjoy sitting back and watching somebody play.”
Woody’s 29 points was the most scored by a Ball State player since Ty’Ronda Benning scored 33 two seasons ago on Jan. 11.
“My goodness,” Sallee said after reciting the stat line of Woody’s performance. “She was an absolute beast tonight.”
