• Cardinals are 0-10 on the road.
• This game has the Cardinals’ lowest scoring output since scoring 50 points Dec. 4.
• Ball State is 1-5 against MAC East teams.
The Ball State men’s basketball team was the underdog heading into the Wednesday night game against Akron, the defending Mid-American Conference champions.
The Cardinals played like it, as the Zips won in blowout fashion 73-46.
Ball State came out of halftime strong, reducing a 19-35 deficit to 30-37. The team did this using an 11-2 run in the first three minutes.
That would soon be erased as Akron put its foot on the gas and left Ball State behind as it produced the lowest scoring output since scoring 50 points Dec. 4 against Valparaiso.
Senior Majok Majok was a catalyst for the Cardinals as he paced his team with 15 points. The All-MAC center was held to three rebounds, his lowest rebounding output since the season opener at Indiana State.
Statistically, the Cardinals produced the same numbers in the Jan. 8 matchup against the Zips, but with a much better scoring output from the seniors. In that first matchup, Chris Bond, Jesse Berry and Majok combined to score the same amount of points the entire Ball State roster posted in the second matchup.
Wednesday night, Bond and Berry combined to score 12 points on 4-17 shooting, and Majok shot 7-9 from the floor.
Freshman guard Zavier Turner finished with 9 points as he drilled three of the team’s four three-pointers. Turner wore the jersey No. 0 as his usual No. 1 was missing from the sea of Cardinal red jerseys.
In the first meeting against the Zips, the Cardinals let Quincy Diggs score 21 points, including clutch baskets late in the game. On Wednesday night, the Cardinals held him to just five points on 2-10 shooting in 24 minutes.
The Cardinals couldn’t produce enough offensive energy to hang with the Zips. Akron’s tight man-to-man defense would not allow Ball State to get a quality look at the basket before running into shot-clock violations. Majok saw a lot of double teams in the post as the Zips made a conscious effort to contain the 6-foot-9 center.
The Cardinals return home to play host to MAC West foe Northern Illinois at 2 p.m. Saturday.
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