Ball State University Athletics
Men's Basketball Travels To Eastern Illinois Wednesday
December 06, 2010 | Men's Basketball
What's On Tap . . .
Ball State returns to action Wednesday after having off for a week as it travels to Eastern Illinois for the second game in the home-and-home season series ... The Cardinals and Panthers met in the season opener with Ball State claiming a 77-46 victory ... Wednesday's game will be broadcast on 104.1 WLBC FM with Morry Mannies and David Eha providing the call ... The game will also be televised by WEIU-TV and will be available online at www.ovcsports.tv for a fee.
Series History vs. Eastern Illinois . . .
Ball State and Eastern Illinois have met 19 times in program history with the Cardinals holding a 15-4 record in the series ... The Cardinals have won eight straight in the series, dating back to the 1966-67 season ... Ball State is 5-3 all-time against the Panthers in Charleston, Ill., and will be making its first visit since 1983.
The Cardinals opened the 2010-11 season with a 77-46 victory over the Panthers as the 31-point victory is the largest in head coach Billy Taylor's four-year tenure ... Four different Cardinals scored in double figures with sophomore guard Jauwan Scaife leading the way with 19 points in 26 minutes of play ... Junior forward Jarrod Jones posted a double-double with 15 points and 10 rebounds ... Jones averages 18.0 points and 11.5 rebounds per game against EIU in his career ... Junior Randy Davis added 13 points, eight assists, six rebounds and two steals while freshman guard Jesse Berry posted 15 points in his first career game.
Scouting Ball State . . .
Ball State enters Wednesday's game with a 3-3 overall record after posting a sixth-place finish at the 2010 Carrs/Safeway Great Alaska Shootout ... The Cardinals dropped games against St. John's and host Alaska-Anchorage while picking up a victory over Southern Utah ... The Cardinals are averaging 66.2 points per game this season while allowing 64.7 points per game against ... Ball State is shooting 43.0 percent (133-309) from the field and 34.2 percent (25-73) from three-point land.
Sophomore guard Jauwan Scaife leads four Cardinals in double figures as he averages 14.2 points per game ... Scaife is shooting 90.6 percent (29-32) from the free throw line and is second on the team with eight three-pointers ... Junior forward Jarrod Jones is second on the team in scoring at 13.3 points per game and leads the team on the glass at 8.3 rebounds per game ... Jones has tallied three double-doubles in six games this season.
Junior guard Randy Davis chips in 10.8 points per game and leads the team with 41 assists and 11 steals ... Freshman guard Jesse Berry rounds out the double figure scorers as he adds 10.7 points per game and leads the team with 10 three-pointers.
Scouting Eastern Illinois . . .
Eastern Illinois enters Wednesday's game with a 3-5 record overall and a 1-1 mark in Ohio Valley Conference play ... The Panthers opened league play last week and posted a 68-67 victory over Tennessee State before dropping a 77-73 overtime contest to Austin Peay Saturday ... EIU is averaging 60.2 points per game this season while allowing 67.6 points per game ... The Panthers are shooting 42.3 percent (176-of-416) from the field and just 29.5 percent (28-of-95) from three-point land.
Tyler Laser leads three Panthers in double figures scoring as he averages 13.1 points per game ... Laser leads the team with 15 three-pointers and has connected on 90 percent (18-of-20) from the free throw line ... Jeremy Granger is second on the team in scoring at 11.4 points per game and leads the team with 32 assists ... Shaun Pratl rounds out the double figure scorers as he chips in 10.1 points per game while leading the team on the glass at 5.1 rebounds per game ... Pratl is shooting 56.6 percent from the field this season (30-of-53).
Jones Named All-Tournament . . .
Junior guard Jarrod Jones was named to the Great Alaska Shootout All-Tournament Team ... Jones is one of 10 members of the All-Tournament squad ... He scored in double figures in all three games of the Shootout as he averages 14.6 points per game and chipped in 7.3 rebounds per contest ... He connected on 56.8 percent (21-of-37) in the three games ... Justin Brownlee of St. John's was named the tournament Most Valuable Player.
Lending A Helping Hand . . .
Junior guard Randy Davis has tallied 41 assists so far this season in the first six games and has only committed 21 turnovers ... His 41 assists are second in the Mid-American Conference this season while his 6.83 assists per game lead the conference ... In fact, he is ranked 11th in the NCAA Division I in assists per game ... He handed out a game-high eight assists against Eastern Illinois ... He followed that up with a nine-assist effort against Indiana State, tying his career-high ... He also tied his top mark with nine helpers against St. John's in the Great Alaska Shootout before setting a career-high with 11 assists against Southern Utah.
Double Trouble . . .
Junior forward Jarrod Jones leads the Cardinals with three double-doubles on the season ... Jones has tallied double dips against Eastern Illinois, Indiana State and Alaska-Anchorage ... He is 21st in NCAA Division I in double-doubles so far this season and is tied for Eastern Michigan's Brandon Bowdry for the lead in the Mid-American Conference ... He has posted 13 double-doubles in his career.
Junior guard Randy Davis posted his first career double-double with an 11-point, 11-assist effort against Southern Utah ... Davis becomes the first Cardinal to post a point/assist double-double since 2006 when former Cardinal Maurice Acker posted 15 points and 10 rebounds at Buffalo (1/18/06).
Cardinals In MAC Stats . . .
Ball State leads the Mid-American Conference in three team statistical categories during the first month of play ... The Cardinals leads the league in three-point defense (.240), turnover margin (+4.3) and assist/turnover ratio (1.2) ... Individually, the Cardinals are spread across the MAC statistical rankings.
Ball State has four players ranked in the top 21 in scoring in the MAC with sophomore guard Jauwan Scaife leading the way ranking 10th in the league (14.2) ... Junior forward Jarrod Jones is 12th (13.3), junior guard Randy Davis is 19th (10.8) and freshman Jesse Berry is 21st (10.7) ... Berry is second in scoring among all MAC freshmen, trailing only Central Michigan's Trey Zeigler (15.6).
Davis leads the MAC in assists at 6.83 per game ... He is also fourth in the league in assist/turnover ratio (1.83), seventh in steals (1.83), seventh in free throw percentage (.769) and 10th in field goal percentage (.487) ... Scaife leads the MAC in free throw percentage at .906 while Jones is second in the MAC in rebounding at 8.3 boards per game ... Berry ranks 10th in the league at the charity stripe (.762) and is 10th in three-pointers made (1.67).
Great Alaska Shootout . . .
Ball State has been off for the past 10 days after taking part in the 2010 Carrs/Safeway Great Alaska Shootout ... The Cardinals finished the tournament in sixth place after posting a 1-2 record on the week.
Ball State opened the Shootout with a 78-73 overtime loss to Big East foe and eventual tournament champion St. John's ... The Cardinals rallied from a 13-point second half deficit to force overtime before falling in the extra time ... Freshman Jesse Berry led four Cardinals in double figures in the loss with a career-high 18 points as he was 5-of-11 from the field, including three three-pointers ... Junior Randy Davis scored 14 points and dished out nine assists while classmate Jarrod Jones added 14 points and eight rebounds.
The Cardinals posted their lone win in Alaska in the second game of the tournament with a 73-54 victory over Southern Utah ... Ball State shot 57.1 percent (28-of-49) from the field in the victory ... Jones paced all scorers with 19 points as he was 9-of-11 from the field ... Davis posted his first career double-double with 11 points and a career-high 11 assists ... Sophomore Jauwan Scaife chipped in 14 points while Berry added 12 points.
BSU rounded out the tournament with a 62-44 loss to host Alaska-Anchorage ... The Cardinals shot just 29.2 percent (14-of-48) from the field and just 15.4 percent (2-of-13) from three-point land in the loss ... Jones posted a double-double with 11 points and 10 rebounds but was the only Cardinal in double figures scoring.
Digital Guide Available Online . . .
The 2010-11 Ball State men's basketball digital guide is available online at www.ballstatesports.com by clicking the digital guide button on the main page or the men's basketball page ... The guide was produced by the BSU athletics media relations office and 180 Communications.
Turning Up The Defense . . .
Ball State continued its defensive dominance under fourth-year head coach Billy Taylor in the first two games ... The Cardinals held Eastern Illinois to just 46 points, its lowest scoring output since posting 42 points against St. Louis last December ... The Cardinals forced the Panthers into 21 turnovers in the victory as they recorded 11 steals as a team ... Ball State turned the EIU miscues into 24 points off of turnovers.
The Cardinals forced Indiana State into 26 turnovers ... . Ball State turned the turnovers into 33 points ... The Cardinals also held the Sycamores to just 4-of-17 shooting from three-point land after ISU entered the game averaging 9.0 three-pointers a game ... Ball State forced Southern Utah into 19 turnovers in Alaska and turned those miscues into 24 points.
Jones In Season Openers . . .
Junior foward Jarrod Jones turned in another strong performance in a season-opener as he scored 15 points and grabbed 10 rebounds Sunday against EIU ... In his three career season-openers, Jones is averaging 18.3 points and 9.7 rebounds per game ... He is shooting 19-of-33 (.576) from the field in the three contests ... In his first career game in 2008-09 against EIU, he scored 21 points and grabbed 13 rebounds ... Last year against Valparaiso, he tallied 19 points and grabbed six rebounds.
Freshmen Debuts . . .
Freshman guard Jesse Berry opened his Ball State career in stellar fashion Sunday as he scored 15 points and grabbed six rebounds in 25 minutes off the bench ... Berry connected on 6-of-14 from the field and 3-of-9 from three-point land in the victory ... His 15 points marks the third straight season that a BSU freshman has opened their career with a double figure output, joining Jauwan Scaife last season (14 points) and Jarrod Jones (21 points) in 2008-09.
Taylor Names Team Captains . . .
Head coach Billy Taylor has named team co-captains for the 2010-11 season in senior forward Malik Perry and junior guard Randy Davis ... Perry is entering his fourth year with the program and has already played 85 games in his career, with 68 starts ... Davis took over the starting point guard position last season and made 29 starts while averaging 10.3 points per game.
BSU MAC West Favorites . . .
Ball State was selected as the preseason favorite to win the Mid-American Conference West Division according to the preseason poll conducted by members of the MAC Media News Association ... The Cardinals are under the direction of fourth-year head coach Billy Taylor and are preseason favorites to claim the MAC West Division for the first time since the 2002-03 season.
The Cardinals received 124 total votes, including 12 first place votes, to out-distance second place pick Central Michigan by two votes (122, 8). In the East Division, Ohio has been selected as the preseason favorite with 128 total votes and 12 first place selections. The Bobcats have also been selected to win the 2011 MAC Tournament with 10 of 24 votes.
Ball State returns four full-time starters and five players who started at least 11 games last year. Those five players have combined to play in 285 career games and have made 223 starts at Ball State. The Cardinals also add a six-member recruiting class which includes five highly touted freshmen who are expected to contribute this year.
Jones Earns MAC Honors . . .
Junior forward Jarrod Jones was selected as preseason All-Mid-American Conference West Division by the league's head coaches ... . Jones earned All-MAC and All-Region accolades last year as he led the team in scoring at 12.2 points per game and rebounding at 7.4 rebounds per contest ... He has led the Cardinals in scoring and rebounding since he stepped on campus after being named MAC Freshman of the Year in the 2008-09 season.
Defensive Prowess . . .
Ball State was one of the top defensive teams in the Mid-American Conference last season and have been since head coach Billy Taylor took over the program ... The Cardinals led the MAC last year in scoring defense (62.4), field goal percentage defense (.400) and three-point field goal percentage defense (.312) ... Ball State was also 43rd in the nation in scoring defense, 36th in field goal defense and 43rd in three-point defense ... Two years ago, the Cardinals held opponents to just 59.7 points per game.
Looking Ahead . . .
Ball State travels to the Windy City Saturday evening as it takes on Big East foe DePaul, marking the Cardinals' second meeting this season against a Big East foe ... The Cardinals return home December 21 as they host the College of Mount St. Joseph for just their third home game of the year.
