Daily News high school sports beat reporter Zach Carter gave his picks for the best and most improved Delaware County girl’s basketball players from the 2023-24 season.
In its opening weekend, Ball State softball went 1-4 in the River City Leadoff.
The Cardinals returned to their home court with one goal, win by any means, and began the fight to achieve this goal immediately.
Coming off of their first conference loss Feb. 7 against Northern Illinois University, Ball State women’s basketball got back in the win column with a 72-57 win against the Dukes.
The Ball State Cardinals (21-3, 9-1 MAC) got back in the win column Sunday afternoon, defeating the James Madison University (JMU) Dukes (17-8, 9-3 SBC) in the finale of the MAC-Sun Belt Challenge by a score of 72-57.
Just hours ahead of the titanic rematch between the AFC’s Kansas City Chiefs and the NFC’s San Francisco 49ers, and a highly-anticipated Apple Halftime Show performance from Usher, the Daily News’ sports team provides final score predictions and favorite songs from the R&B artist.
Ball State prevailed in the offense-dominated match, downing Lindenwood (3-7, 0-3 MIVA) in a two-and-a-half hour, five-set thriller (22-25, 28-26, 25-23, 18-25, 21-19), inside the Lions’ Hyland Arena.
After falling to Texas State in the Mid-American Conference-Sun Belt Conference Challenge, the Cardinals have lost their last two games.
The women’s team claimed a win against Bellarmine (145.5-58.5) while the men’s team suffered a loss to end the season against Southern Illinois (181-118).
In the opening minutes, both squads were looking to run but as a result, there were multiple early turnovers. The Indians found a lot of success in the opening period on the offensive glass. The white and red converted on multiple second-chance opportunities to begin to open up an early lead at the end of the first 14-7.
Ball State returns to Muncie and secures their first win in almost three weeks.
Harrison is leaving the conference with McCutcheon and Logansport at the end of the school year McCutcheon. Logansport decided to leave and join the Hoosier Conference after a vote by the Hoosier Conference.
During the Broncos' 77-59 win, senior Meryck Adams recorded his 195th 3-pointer which broke the school record.
After the Raiders defeated Monroe Central 69-53, Wapahani head coach Matt Luce earned his 300th career win as their head coach.
The Cardinals dropped a three-set battle (28-30, 23-25, 21-25) to McKendree (5-4, 2-1 MIVA) inside the Bearcats’ Melvin Price Convocation Center. The loss not only brought Ball State’s winning ways against McKendree to a halt, but it also marked the red and white’s first setback of the Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association (MIVA) this season.
The Cardinals continue to lead the MAC after beating Kent State University, Bowling Green University and now Central Michigan back to back. The Cardinals won 196.000-195.325.
The visiting Ohio Bobcats eventually took the lead by end of regulation, benefitting from Jihad fouling out with 1:26 left to play with Cardinals up 70-68.
Coming into Wednesday evening, games between the Cardinals and the Northern Illinois Huskies (10-11, 4-6 MAC) in DeKalb, Illinois have been decided by a combined nine points since 2019. With 40 seconds left, the game was on par with the last five times Ball State has traveled to Northern Illinois.
Ball State women’s basketball is sitting at a 20-2 record this year and have won their last 14 games in a row, which is the longest in school history.
