Ball State scored the first 28 points and cruised to a 126-55 victory over Oakland City on Sunday afternoon.

12 different Cardinals got on the score sheet, led by freshman forward Oshlynn Brown, freshman guard Maliah Howard-Bass, senior forward Destiny Washington who scored 17, 15 and 14 in the victory. Four other Ball State (9-0) players reached double figures.

"This game was good for a lot of reasons, but it's good because of that," Ball State head coach Brady Sallee said. "There's a lot of players who are working their tail off that haven't gotten into the rotation yet. To let them get out there and do what they've been practicing to do is good and to see them do it so well is good and should be something that maybe propels them into more playing time."

The Mighty Oaks scored 17 points in the first quarter alone behind excellent shooting from beyond the arc. That's was the second most any team has scored on Ball State in the first quarter this season. 

Only Butler's 27 first quarter points on Nov. 29 topped the effort. Oakland City (2-7) made five triples in the first 10 minutes of play.

The Cardinals forced 35 turnovers in the victory, led by junior guard Carmen Grande who forced seven steals to go along with her six points, 12 assists and no turnovers. 

Grande, from Madrid, Spain, also had her mother in attendance at Sunday's game.

"My mom was here and it's exciting [to play in front of her]," Grande said. "She watched me play every single game growing up and they love coming here so I feel really excited to play for them."

The Ball State backups got extended playing time, with all seven of the team's non-starters playing over 10 minutes. 

"Excited just about the way everyone played today," Sallee said. "Sometimes those games are hard to play in but we talked about playing to our standard and just doing what we do. I thought we did a good job of playing that way the whole time."

The 126 points scored by the Cardinals is an all-time record for points scored in a regular season game at Worthen Arena. Ball State counts the win toward its regular season record, but Oakland City counts Sunday's game as an exhibition. 

"I feel like whenever I come off the bench I give fire to the team," Howard-Bass said. "We get our tempo up and I just want to do what I can."

The point total also is the most Ball State has scored in any game, regular season or exhibition, since beating Urbana University 151-72 in an exhibition game on Nov. 3, 2015.

The Cardinals also forced 26 steals, outscored Oakland City 60-4 in the paint and outrebounded the Mighty Oaks 71-30.

Next up, Ball State hosts Austin Peay (7-2) at Worthen Arena on Dec. 18 at 11 a.m.

Contact Sam Barloga with comments at sabarloga@bsu.edu or on Twitter @SamBarloga.

Share