After two losses and a close win, the Ball State women’s basketball team’s four-game road stretch is almost done.
The team will travel to Clarksville, Tenn., to take on Austin Peay on Saturday at 6:15 p.m.
On Thursday, the Cardinals began its weekend on a rough note, losing to Murray State, 63-53.
“These kind of games, it’s good to let them stick in your crawl a little bit,” Sallee said. “We’ll see if we can’t look a little bit better on Saturday.”
Austin Peay is currently in the opening stretch of what looks to be a difficult season ahead.
The Governors are 1-5 in 2012 so far, with its only win coming in a 71-67 decision against Binghamton on Nov. 18.
Austin Peay lost the last game it played 67-36 at Vanderbilt.
The leading scorer for the Governors is guard Leslie Martinez. The senior from Copperas Cove, Texas, is averaging 10.5 points per game. However, it’s clear that Austin Peay’s scoring is spread around. Five different players are averaging more than six points per contest in 2012.
“Austin Peay will present us with a whole different set of problems,” Sallee said. “We’ve got to be ready for that.”
Martinez is also a force on the boards for the Governors. She’s averaging 5.7 rebounds per game. She also is playing the most out of anybody on Austin Peay’s roster. Martinez is averaging 32 minutes per game, while none of her teammates are approaching 30.
In Ball State’s game on Thursday, sophomore Katie Murphy had a record day, setting new career-highs in points with 20. She also tied her career-high in rebounds with 14.
Matching those totals may prove difficult for Murphy against the Governors. On Austin Peay’s roster is a 6-foot-4 center, senior Kaitlyn Hill. However, she is only playing about 15 minutes in each game. Other than Hill, nobody else with significant playing time on Austin Peay’s roster looks to challenge Murphy’s 6-foot-2 frame.
“When you’ve got a two-game road trip like this, it’s always great to get the first one. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen for us,” Sallee said. “So we have to regroup and figure out what got us in this game [against Murray State]. We’ll watch some film and learn off of this one [Friday], then we’ll put the game plan in for Austin Peay.”
When discussing Saturday’s game, Sallee once again used one of his favorite expressions.
“The good thing about basketball is you can’t worry about the last one for too long, because you’ve got another one coming down the pike,” he said.
