DAYTON, Ohio - Ball State (1-2) hit the road for its third contest of the young season to take on the Dayton Flyers (2-0). The Cardinals struggled to find much momentum through most of the contest and fell short 69-77. Here are three takeaways from Ball States' loss to the Flyers.

Turnover issues continue

Playing against a team like Dayton, the Cardinals had to take care of the ball with the pressure they would face from the Flyers. Ball State struggled early giving away two turnovers on their first two offensive possessions which led to two dunks for the home team. 

The pressure that Dayton was applying affected the Cardinals being able to run an effective offense. The Flyers mixed up their defense between a full-court press to playing half-court defense to keep the Ball State offense on its toes.

In the first half alone the Cardinals amassed ten turnovers leading to ten points off those turnovers for Dayton. Ball State offensively had the right idea with some of the pass attempts it tried to make in their half-court offense. However, the Flyers had quick hands defensively getting in nearly all of the Cardinals' passing lanes. 

There also seemed to be a lack of security with the ball, with Ball State struggling to handle passes. Mishandling the ball became a habit the Cardinals couldn’t seem to break throughout the game.

Turnovers have been a consistent theme in they early going for Ball State this season. It is difficult to win many basketball games when the offense struggles to maintain possession of the ball.

Lack of offensive continuity in first half

The offense for Ball State did not hit their first field goal until the 8:01 mark in the first half. Even that shot came from a goaltending call on the Flyers. The Cardinals made their first shot with 7:09 to go in the half. The shooting struggles for Ball State seemed to come from a lack of offensive awareness.

There were multiple times when players seemed to be standing around the three-point arc without much motion or action being run. At points in the first half players seemed confused about what was trying to be run, with multiple Cardinals running to the same spot on the court causing poor floor spacing. 

As a result of the lack of confusion on offense, the shot selection at times seemed to be forced because not much action was being run to get players open. Thirteen of the Cardinals twenty six points in the half came from the free throw line only shooting 6-for-23 from the floor. 

Communication on offense is crucial and Ball State did not seem to have much of it in the first half. There was a lot of one on one action and not as much team basketball being played early onn for the Cardinals.

Second half surge

It took awhile for Ball State to settle into the game, part of that was due to the large crowd of 13,407 Flyers fans. That kind of packed arena is something many of the players on the Cardinals roster have not experienced in their time in college. Overcoming that hump took awhile but once they did it led to a momentum shift in the second half.

Despite the rough performance in the opening half for Ball State, they did not let that deter them from coming out and competing. The Cardinals were able to make a 14-7 run to begin the second half drawing them to within single digits. 

There were multiple moments in the second half where the Cardinals grabbed all the momentum cutting the lead down to five at one point. A large part of making those runs was multiple guys making big shots. Players like graduate senior Ethan Britain-Watts notched 16 and senior Mickey Pearson Jr. tallied eleven points. Junior transfer guard Jermahri Hill played a big role in that as well scoring 25 points to lead Ball State.

Contact David Moore with comments at david.moore@bsu.edu or on X @gingninj63

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