Name Points Minutes Field Goals
Chris Bond• 8 31 1-of-8
Tyler Koch• 5 21 2-of-4
Majok Majok• 5 23 2-of-5
Quinten Payne• 0 14 0-of-4
Jesse Berry• 10 21 4-of-11
Zavier Turner 9 32 2-of-9
Bo Calhoun 0 6 0-of-4
Mark Alstork 11 25 2-of-5
Mading Thok 2 10 1-of-2
•Denotes starter
• Ball State shot 14-of-52 from the floor
• Team’s lowest scoring total (50) of the season
• Team shot 4-of-16 from three-point range
The diameter of the basketball rim at Worthen Arena is 18 inches. For the Ball State men’s basketball team Wednesday night, it seemed more like eight inches.
Ball State shot 14-of-52 from the field in the 69-50 loss to Valparaiso.
It was clear from the tipoff that the Cardinals would struggle to score in the game.
On Ball State’s first possession, senior center Majok Majok was passed the ball down low. Immediately, Valparaiso defenders ran over to double Majok. He tried to drive across the baseline, but ran out of bounds for a turnover.
“You’re going to have some nights where you’re 4-for-4, you’re going to have some nights where you’re 0-for-4,” Ball State head coach James Whitford said. “There are other things about competing for 40 minutes, being able to execute on offense and do the things that we’re trying to do every day that we didn’t do. That part I was really disappointed in.”
After the game, senior forward Tyler Koch said the team had prepared to play in Valparaiso’s usual 2-3 zone, but was surprised by Valparaiso’s man defense at times.
“They didn’t really play zone as much as we prepared for them,” Koch said. “That kind of threw us off. But that should’ve been to our advantage because we play against man every day in practice. You would think that would be to our advantage, but obviously we struggled.”
One reason was Valparaiso bigs Moussa Gueye, Bobby Capobianco and Vashil Fernandez.
Gueye, a 7-foot Senegal native, started the game at center, facing off against 6-foot-9-inch Majok.
Gueye disrupted Ball State drives and Majok post ups, but only played 17 minutes.
His time was cut short due to foul trouble. Gueye fouled out with just under five minutes left in the game.
When Gueye wasn’t in the game, he was replaced with Capobianco and Fernandez, both 6-foot-10-inch forwards.
Ball State’s offense, spurred by freshman point guard Zavier Turner, retook the lead, 20-19 with five minutes to go in the first half.
Valparaiso then went on a 12-0 run to end the half.
“We broke off too much stuff,” Whitford said. “Some of it was that we were rusty, having spent the last 48 hours on zone. We have to be able to go back and forth. Every team in the country does. We didn’t do it well tonight. And it was turnovers, which has been our Achilles’ heel.”
Ball State had 14 turnovers in the game, equal to the number of field goals it made. Senior guard Jesse Berry contributed for almost a third of them by himself with four.
Whitford said when the score started to go against Ball State, the players began playing by themselves instead of with the team.
“I want them to let that frustration out on the defensive end,” Whitford said. “But you can’t let it out on the offensive end like that because that leads to nights of 3-for-10 and 2-for-11. It’s not that you can’t score, it’s that you won’t be efficient doing it.”
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