On Saturday afternoon, Ball State took the court at Worthen Arena against Bellarmine. After some career highs and a team effort, the Cardinals defeated the Knights 67-58.
Here are four takeaways from the game.
Ball State’s energy
Ball State came out showing a lot of effort on both ends of the floor early and often. In the first five minutes, the Cardinals already had notched three offensive rebounds and a steal. Offensive rebounding seemed to be a point of emphasis as the red and white outrebounded the Knights offensively 9-6.
Leading the charge on the glass were juniors Basheer Jihad and Ben Hendriks. Jihad recorded eleven while Hendriks had seven rebounds in the game.
With success on the offensive glass came multiple opportunities for second-chance points, which Ball State controlled all game, outscoring the Knights 13-6 in that category.
Interior defensive struggles
Bellarmine was attacking the paint early, and the Cardinals struggled to handle the back cuts from the Knights. Dribble penetration forced the defense to collapse on the drive, but they couldn’t seem to handle the backside offense.
Almost every point scored by the Knights in the first half came from the paint or the free-throw line as they shot 1-5 (20%) from three-point range. The Knights outscored the Cardinals in the paint 36-30.
Junior forward Langdon Hatton led the way for the Knights with 19 points while not even attempting a three-point shot.
Ben Hendriks’ career day
Before today’s game, Hendriks had a career-high of ten points and six rebounds. He eclipsed both those marks with eleven points and seven rebounds. Hendriks also made his presence felt on the defensive end of the floor recording two blocks as well.
To open the season, he was a rotational piece coming off the bench for the Cardinals. In Ball States’ fifth game of the season, head Coach Michael Lewis decided to make a change by inserting Hendriks into the starting lineup. So far, that change has helped boost his game while also helping Ball State to a 3-1 record in that 4-game span.
Balanced scoring
Ball State had a very balanced attack offensively with the inside-out game clicking all game long for Ball State. The red and white accumulated 28 points in the paint while going 7-for-17 (41.2 percent) from deep.
The Cardinals had five players with eight points or more, with Jihad and Jalin Anderson leading the way in scoring 17 and 16 points, respectively. This balanced effort isn’t an abnormality for the Cardinals as they have four players averaging double digits on the season.
A good chunk of the scoring came from the charity stripe with Ball State shooting 16-18 (88.9%) as a team. That effort was their best from the free-throw line all season.
Contact David Moore with comments at david.moore@bsu.edu or on X @gingninj63
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