DAYTON, Ohio – The University of Dayton Arena hosted 13,407 people as Ball State visited the Flyers Wednesday evening. After warmups, Cardinals’ head coach Michael Lewis said his team noticed the crowd growing with every minute.
“I was worried about coming into the game because a couple of our guys came in after warmups and said ‘Coach, it’s packed up there,'" Lewis said. “That's what you want for your guys.”
For junior guard Jemahri Hill – who played community college and junior college basketball before transferring this year – it was a whole new experience.
“It was pretty nice,” Hill said. “I feel like as a whole, we came out kind of rough, but we just gotta figure out a way to stay calm and come out with the right hand.”
Though Lewis is used to environments like that due to playing at Indiana University and coaching at institutions such as UCLA, he knows what this means to younger athletes.
“I probably take for granted where I played and where I've been able to coach because I've been that and a lot of these guys haven't,” he said. “And for them to have that type of experience, I’m very grateful to Dayton for having us over here because this experience, these guys will remember it forever.”
But while the crowd was bigger than what the Cardinals (1-2) were used to, the opponent was also on a different level as the red and white were 16-point underdogs coming into the matchup. However, Ball State had its moments as the Cardinals fell to the Flyers 77-69.
“I’m so proud of our effort because we did a lot of good things,” Lewis said. “We did some things that we gotta continue to improve on. But as I told them in the locker room, if they'll bring that [effort this season] we'll have a chance.”
The contest opened in Dayton’s (3-0) favor as the Cardinals started 0-for-12 from the floor. It seemed that Ball State could not get the basketball to find the bottom of the net no matter the shot type. The first Cardinal basket came at the 8:01 mark when graduate student guard Ethan Brittain-Watts had his shot blocked, but the officials called a goaltend violation on the Flyers.
During that stretch, the red and white also had nine turnovers.
For the rest of the half, the inconsistent play remained as Ball State went into halftime trailing 41-26. They went 6-for-23 and only had two assists.
But right before the pause in play, Hill added a highlight-worthy play with a poster of a Dayton defender.
The adjustments Lewis made during the break seemed to do something as the changes and the spark provided by Hill affected the Cardinals’ play. They played team basketball and used that to close in on the Flyers 53-48 at the 10:44 spot.
“We played with more poise and I thought the ball moved a little easier,” Lewis said. We were able to do some things offensively and schematically to exploit some things that we thought we could take advantage of.
“When things are going wrong, all of these guys default to do it themselves… It's not going to go well… I thought we made a lot more unselfish plays tonight than we've made in the previous contest.”
But in the end, the Cardinals could not play a full game as more issues including more turnovers – Ball State finished with 15 in total – did not allow the red and white to capitalize, which led to them falling in their second game of the year.
Besides Hill’s big night, others like redshirt senior forward Mickey Pearson Jr. added 11 points and Brittain-Watts recorded 16. Pearson Jr. has been a part of Ball State men’s basketball for the last three seasons and to him, this team is one of the closest he’s seen.
“We're pretty close,” he said. “I feel like we gotta work on showing that on the court a little bit, but we'll get there. I feel like we were in the right direction. I feel like we all genuinely want to win and we all want to do what it takes to win.”
But Lewis believes they need to use that factor to improve for the future. To him, they can’t ‘let their feelings get hurt.’
“We've got a long way to go from a communication standpoint, but I thought we took some steps in that regard tonight,” Lewis said. “...You've got to be able to communicate with each other, and I think in previous contests, we've just kind of gone five separate ways.”
The Cardinals will return to Muncie as Indiana State visits Worthen Arena Saturday, Nov. 16 Tip-off is set for 2 p.m.
Contact Zach Carter via email at zachary.carter@bsu.edu or on X @ZachCarter85.
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