Coming off of a win against Western Michigan University on Wednesday to start Mid-American Conference play, Ball State University women's basketball acting head coach Lisa McDonald said the team is trying to keep a hold of what went well in Kalamazoo, Mich.
"We need to continue to get great defensive stops keeping them on their heels as much as possible and running fast breaks without sacrificing execution," McDonald said. "I think [Thursday] in practice they were saying they're kind of sore. That is to be expected, but they were also saying who cares we won."
The Cardinals will play their second consecutive road game Saturday at Northern Illinois University. The Huskies enter the contest 5-10 (0-1 MAC) on the season.
In its conference opener, Ball State forced 13 Western Michigan turnovers in the first half and held the Broncos to 5-17 from behind the arc in the game.
Guard Porchia Green said the defensive success is simple.
"Our defense is our best offense," she said.
Including Wednesday's game, Ball State has won the last three games when it shot more than 45 percent. With their 50 percent shooting performance against the Broncos, this marked the third time this season Ball State has made at least half of its shots.
"Our running in transition was great," Green said. "Earlier in the season we got away from our first option, which was to score as fast as we can. We played great team basketball our last game. We need to play like that a lot."
With Wednesday's win putting its 4-9 non-conference record further behind them, McDonald said the team is excited to carry Wednesday's momentum into Saturday's game.
"Nobody was happy with starting 4-9." McDonald said. "But deep down inside from day one we've known who we are capable of being as a team. They never lost confidence in their swagger. Because they were so resilient it's starting to pay off now."
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