After the Ball State Cardinals and Miami Redhawks met in Worthen Arena Tuesday evening for the latest installment of the battle of the Redbirds, Ball State head coach Michael Lewis was happy with his team’s effort.

But even with the red and white’s positive spirits, some defensive miscues by the Cardinals allowed Miami to take the 80-72 victory.

“[I’m] disappointed with our attention to detail defensively in the second half,” Lewis said. “Some things that we had in the game really broke down and … like all good teams do. They took advantage of it.”

Though the Redhawks averaged 83 points per game, the scoring by both teams didn’t start right away. At the 14:10 mark of the opening half, Miami led 7-1. But the energy Lewis mentioned proved true as the Cardinals rallied to take a 10-9 lead.

Following the 9-2 run, the game became a contest as both teams traded leads throughout the first half. During that stretch, it became a physical match with both coaches talking to the officials on multiple occasions.

“I thought our drives were very physical,” Lewis said. “But listen, we were just as physical. I got an answer back from [an official] that I didn't really appreciate, so that's that.”

But throughout the physical game, the Redhawks used a trick to pull away multiple times: the backdoor cut. The Cardinals could not stop the play and gave up multiple points inside the paint.

“That's really disappointing when it's something that we've worked on for two days,” Lewis said. “Whether it's mental fatigue or getting caught up in the moment, I don't know, but we wanted to stay underneath … and force them to the action, not get on top of them.”

While the Cardinals were able to hold the Redhawks to a low 3-point percentage (30 percent), they still couldn’t keep the Redhawks’ offense from finding the bottom of the net. Redshirt sophomore Kam Craft led Miami with 28 points and was 12-for-18 from the field. While he looked good, Lewis said that he wasn’t surprised by the total of points.

“This is not the first time somebody's gone off and got 28 [points] on us,” Lewis said. “We've let some guys go for some big games [this season].”

Though the Cardinals had more success on defense in the second half, the Redhawks’ offense continued to battle in the paint as they won that fight with 42 paint points to the Cardinals’ 36. Leading the way for the Cardinals was senior center Payton Sparks with a double-double – 20 points and 16 rebounds. But at the free-throw line, he was just 4-for-10.

"I've been working on it with coach, too,” But I just wasn’t hitting free throws today. I gotta be
Better.”

Junior guard Jemahri Hill also had 20 points. Redshirt senior forward Mickey Pearson Jr. followed with 12 while graduate student forward Jeremiah Hernandez continued his solid play with 11 points. To him, it’s been all about his attitude.

“I think everything physically is there, but me and the coaches had to get back on the same page today,” Hernandez said. “I could have competed better and cleaned it up a little bit. But I just thank Coach for not giving up on me… I just want to continue doing what I'm doing, and next game, turn it up even more.

Ball State will look to find the win column when they take on Bowling Green in Muncie Saturday, Jan 12 at 2 p.m.

Contact Zach Carter via email at zachary.carter@bsu.edu or via X @ZachCarter85.

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