Men’s Basketball on the Road at Buffalo Saturday

Saturday, January 14

Buffalo, NY

2:00 PM ET

Ball State University

Buffalo

Photo by: Ball State University Creative Services

January 13, 2017 | Men's Basketball

Game Notes

Cardinals set to visit two-time defending MAC Tournament champion

Game 17
Ball State (10-6, 1-2 MAC) at Buffalo (7-9, 1-2 MAC)
Saturday, Jan. 14 (2 p.m.)
Alumni Arena (Buffalo, N.Y.)
Watch (ESPN3) | Listen (WLBC) | Live Stats

Opening Tip
• Ball State plays the last in a stretch of four straight games against Mid-American Conference East Division competition with a road game Saturday at Buffalo. It is the first of two meetings this season between the teams, who will also play Feb. 3 in Muncie.

• The teams met once last season with Buffalo winning 76-64 on its home floor.

• Ball State is coming off an 85-74 home win over Miami. Franko House led the way with 20 points as the Cardinals put five scorers in double figures for the third time this season. BSU shot 55.3 percent as a team, topping the 50 percent mark for the sixth time this year.

• Buffalo, the two-time defending MAC Tournament champion, is coming off a last-second home loss to Ohio earlier this week. Six of the Bulls' nine losses this season have come against teams rated among Ken Pomeroy's top 100. Blake Hamilton leads four double-figure scorers for UB at 16.9 points per game.

• Ball State has become a deeper team since the return of junior guard Jeremie Tyler. In six games with Tyler, the Cardinals' bench is outscoring opponents by an average of 27.8 to 13.8. In the 10 games BSU played without Tyler, BSU's bench was outscored 24.9 to 19.5 on average.

• The Cardinals have recorded at least seven steals in five of the past seven games after reaching that number just twice in the first nine games of the season. BSU is averaging 7.4 steals per game over the current seven-game stretch.

• Through three conference games, Ball State is shooting 57.9 percent inside the arc but only 31.0 percent from 3-point range. Those numbers vary greatly from the non-conference portion of the schedule when BSU was 51.3 percent on 2-point shots and 38.6 percent on 3's.

• Tayler Persons (16.3 ppg) and Franko House (16.0 ppg) are leading the Cardinals in scoring during conference play.

Career Numbers vs. Buffalo
• Among active Ball State players who have played more than one career game against Buffalo, senior forward Franko House leads the way with an average of 11.0 points per game against the Bulls.

• In four career games against Buffalo, House has connected on 18 of 32 shots from the floor (.563) and has also averaged 4.8 rebounds and 2.5 assists per contest.

• Junior guard Sean Sellers has averaged 10.5 points over two career games against Buffalo. The bulk of that came in a 19-point performance as a freshman two years ago in Muncie.

• Junior guard Francis Kiapway has also played two career games against the Bulls, averaging 9.0 points on 5-of-9 shooting from 3-point range (.556).