Ball State Thumps BG MBB

Well, Ball State delivered a good old-fashioned butt-kicking to BG on Tuesday at the Stroh.  It happens.  If BG is to be a championship team, they have to rebound from this--their first conference loss--and get back to playing winning ball on a quick turnaround at UB.  

It was ugly and really no contest.  BG was up 1 about 8 minutes in and then Ball State set the tone for the rest of the game with a 9-1 run.  That was with 9 minutes left and a couple minutes later they were up 11.  BG drove the lead down to 2 with 2 minutes left in their last meaningful run of the game.  Here, they had a shot to change the direction, to finish the half-close or on top, but the Cards outscored BG 7-2 over the last two minutes to lead by 7 at the half.

They came out hot in the second half, outscoring BG 8-2 in the first 1:47 before a BG timeout, with the Falcons down 13.  They had it to 18 by the media timeout at 16, and it was over.  The lead never got inside 10 and ended up at 24 for the final score.

It was a thorough ass-kicking.

You can see here how it unfolded.  First of all, BSU made baskets with impunity.  Ball State ended up at 1.19 points per possession, which is really good.  They shot incredible....better than Michigan did earlier this year and the best against BG since that Akron loss on the run up to the 2019 MAC tournament.  They shot 63% on 2FG and 46% on 3FG...and 46% of their FGA were from 3, which is really high.  You're going to win, even if you have turnover issues.

Meanwhile, BG shot terribly.....86 points per possession, and 44% EFG, which is down in the territory of the Wright State game.  BG shot 21% on 3FG, their worst this season.  BG failed to take advantage of Ball State's defensive rebounding issues and the Falcons had unusual turnover issues.  And BG got to the line 26 times but made only 17, for 65%.  It was a game where everything that had gone well went badly instead.

Justin Turner led BG with 18 points, moving him into 3rd on the all-time scoring list.  He had a decent game, shooting 50% overall.  He added 4 rebounds, 5 assists and 4 turnovers (obviously not a good ratio) and 3 steals.

No one else was in double figures.  Swingle had 8 on 3 of 4 shooting in 8 minutes, though he struggled on the other end of the floor.  Washington had 9 on 4 of 5 shooting in 9 minutes.  Plowden had 8 rebounds.  But a lot of guys struggled.  Those numbers don't come out of nowhere.  Metheny, Plowden, Fields, Diggs and Fulcher all had trouble making baskets.

BG has been playing well and did not in any way play well in this one.  They were just outright beaten.  Two things.  First, BG needs to figure out how to score if they aren't making 3FGs, because it will happen.  And BG needs to bounce back and put together a winning performance Friday.  You don't want to string bad games together.