Men’s Basketball Closes Road Trip Saturday at Indiana State

Saturday, November 25

Terre Haute, Ind.

1:00 PM ET

Ball State University

Indiana State

Photo by: Timothy Sofranko

Men’s Basketball Closes Road Trip Saturday at Indiana State

November 24, 2017 | Men's Basketball

Game Notes

Cardinals set to play first of 10 straight games in the state of Indiana

Game 6
Ball State (1-4, 0-0 MAC) at Indiana State (2-3, 0-0 MVC)
Saturday, Nov. 25 (1 p.m.)
Terre Haute, Ind. (Hulman Center)
Watch (ESPN3) | Listen (WLBC) | Live Stats

A Look at the Cardinals
• Ball State visits Indiana State to renew the oldest and most frequent rivalry in program history. The Cardinals and Sycamores played for the first time in 1922, and Saturday's meeting will be the 132nd all-time.

• Ball State has played the 25th-most difficult schedule in the country, according to Ken Pomeroy. The Cardinals are coming off an 87-83 loss Wednesday at two-time defending Patriot League champion Bucknell. BSU led the game by as many as six points in the final 10 minutes.

• Junior point guard Tayler Persons reached the 1,000-point mark for his career with his team-high 21 points in the Bucknell game. Persons, who played his freshman season at Northern Kentucky before transferring, needed just 69 college games to reach the mark.

• Persons leads the Cardinals in scoring at 16.4 points per game, while sophomore forward Kyle Mallers (12.6) and junior guard Jontrell Walker (10.2) are also averaging double figures.

• Ball State ranks 22nd nationally in team free throw percentage, knocking down 79.4 percent from the stripe. The Cardinals have shot 75 percent or better from the line in every game.

• Saturday's contest is the last in a stretch of five games in 11 days that has taken the Cardinals approximately 8,000 miles with games in Oklahoma, Indiana, Oregon and Pennsylvania.

• Starting with Saturday's game, Ball State will play 10 in a row in the state of Indiana, including eight on its home floor at Worthen Arena. The Cardinals will not leave the state again until their third Mid-American Conference game Jan. 9 at Ohio.

Scouting Indiana State
• Indiana State is coming off a 75-58 victory Wednesday over Missouri-Saint Louis.
• The Sycamores opened the season with a road win at Indiana before suffering losses in the Gildan Charleston Classic to Auburn, Old Dominion and Ohio (in four overtimes).
• Sophomore guard Jordan Barnes leads ISU in scoring at 13.0 points per game, while Qiydar Davis (12.0) and Brenton Scott (10.0) also average double figures.
• The Sycamores are playing their eighth season under head coach Greg Lansing.

Series History
• Ball State has played Indiana State more frequently than any opponent in program history with 131 previous meetings.
• The Sycamores hold a 73-58 lead in the all-time series, including a 50-17 mark in games played in Terre Haute.
• ISU has won three straight at home in the series, with the Cardinals' last road victory over the Sycamores coming in December 2009.
• Indiana State won last year's matchup in Muncie in overtime.

Rookies Playing a Big Role
• True freshmen Zach Gunn and Ishmael El-Amin have made significant impacts off the bench this season.
• Gunn, coming off a career-high 13 points at Bucknell, is averaging 9.2 points and 3.8 rebounds in 17.2 minutes per game from his forward position.
• El-Amin is playing 17.4 minutes per game in the back court and leading the team in assist-to-turnover ratio at 2.2 to 1.