Two Cardinals finished with career nights as Ball State (19-4, 8-4 MAC) knocked off conference foe Eastern Michigan (9-13, 5-6 MAC) 91-85.
Ball State had four scorers in double-digits. Junior guard Carmen Grande led the way with her career-high 25 points, while also adding eight assists.
Coming off the bench, freshman forward Oshlynn Brown notched her third straight double-double, grabbing a team-high 13 rebounds and a career-high in points with 22.
Brown came in off a solid performance in Saturdays lost against Ohio where she scored 16 points and pulled down 11 rebounds. After another great game, her confidence continues to grow.
“Before, when I got here, my confidence level wasn’t that high,” Brown said. “Now I have the ability to have confidence in myself.”
Her teammates and coaching staff also believe in Brown’s ability to help the team.
“Nobody on our coaching staff looks at her as a freshman anymore, we just look at her as a really good player,” head coach Brady Sallee said. “You’re seeing her teammates have confidence in her too and start pounding the ball into her.”
Brown was able to knock down almost everything she threw up, shooting six-out-of-seven from the field and 10-12 from the free-throw line.
Ball State as a team made 76.3 percent of its free-throws.
Ball State struggled with rebounding in the first half as Eastern Michigan won the battle 25 to 13 heading into halftime.
“All I could say to them is rebound,” Sallee said.
The Cardinals got the message as Brown was able to help turn it around, grabbing eight rebounds in the second half.
“I felt like I did good today aggressively,” Brown said. “I saw that we weren’t rebounding good so I knew that when I got on the floor my change was to rebound aggressively.”
The Cardinals outrebounded the Eagles in the second half 26 to 16.
Ball State will be back in action on the road Saturday as it will face the Western Michigan Broncos at 2 p.m.
Contact Daric Clemens with comments at diclemens@bsu.edu.