Shooting switch up in first half

The Cardinals struggled offensively out of the gate. The Miami defense stifled Ball States' offensive flow, and they could not find any open lanes to the basket. Ball State was held without a field goal until the 13:40 mark of the first half shooting 0-for-7 to begin the contest. They finally found the bottom of the net thanks to graduate student Ethan Britain-Watts draining a three to end the drought.

Once the Britain-Watts three went down, the lid on the basket for Ball State started to come off, and they went on a quick 9-2 run to get back in the game. That short spurt came from multiple Cardinals getting in the scoring column, as the offense was finally able to find some direction toward the bucket and open up driving lanes.

Payton Sparks' energy and aggressiveness

In the early going there wasn’t much offensively for the Cardinals, but off the bench, the Preseason All-MAC center provided a much needed spark for Ball State. Sparks was aggressive early on the boards and gave the Cardinals multiple second-chance opportunities offensively. The Winchester native was also aggressive in seeking out his shot shooting 5-for-6 from the floor in the first half with 12 points. 

With Payton getting his buckets in the paint he was able to draw multiple fouls on the Redhawks as well. The Cardinals' big man was fired up throughout the first half and was making sure his opponents knew he was winning the battle down low. Sparks’ dominance resulted in a double-double with the big man notching 20 points and 16 rebounds in the loss.

Back door cuts

Defensively Ball State struggled with Miamis cutting, specifically when cutting behind the defense. The Cardinals seemed to show a lack of awareness of where their man was on defense which led to a plethora of easy baskets for the Redhawks at the rim. It was an issue in the first half, and there didn’t seem to be much urgency to fix it in the second half. 

Ball State was hyper-focused on shutting down the three-point line defensively, but with that extra energy on the perimeter, it allowed for lapses on the interior defense. They were quick to try to jump the passing lanes at the top of the key which then resulted in them falling for pump fakes, leading to layups at the rim.

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

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