Men’s Hoops Shakes off Sluggish First Half in Win over Oakland City

Tuesday, November 28

Muncie, Ind.

7:00 PM ET

Ball State University

3-4

Oakland City

4-2

Oakland City

Ball State

Photo by: Ball State University Creative Services

Men’s Hoops Shakes off Sluggish First Half in Win over Oakland City

November 28, 2017 | Men's Basketball

Box Score PDF Box Score Post-Game Press Conference

Cardinals dominate in paint, at free throw line in 81-57 victory

MUNCIE, Ind. -- Tahjai Teague led five double-figure scorers with 16 points Tuesday night as the Ball State men's basketball team pulled away from Oakland City for an 81-57 victory.

The Cardinals (3-4) had a tough shooting night from 3-point range but seemed to get whatever they wanted inside, going 21 for 26 inside the arc. BSU also got to the free throw line 30 times and made 21 of them.

Ball State outscored the Mighty Oaks 41-19 after halftime to break open a close game as the Cardinals returned to their home floor after a travel-heavy, three-game road stretch. Freshman guard Ishmael El-Amin scored 11 of his career-high 13 points after halftime.

"I thought in the second half, we really settled in," Ball State head coach James Whitford said. "We shared the ball, we got the ball inside, we played the game the right way.

"We didn't shoot the ball well in either half. That's just part of it. We made every one of them on Saturday (at Indiana State). That's always going to kind of come and go, but I thought we played the game better on both ends in the second half."

Ball State took control with a 16-2 run to open up a 64-48 lead with 10 minutes to play. Minutes later, back-to-back dunks from Teague followed by a Sean Sellers 3-pointer pushed the margin to 20 at 73-53.

Teague finished with four dunks on the night, helping the Cardinals to a 36-14 advantage in the paint over Oakland City (4-2).

Kyle Mallers added 12 points for the Cardinals, while Sellers and Tayler Persons scored 11 each. Teague and Trey Moses led all players with nine rebounds.

Ball State came out of the gates quickly for the second straight game to grab 15-2 lead, but Oakland City clawed back and trailed by only two at the break.

"I thought Oakland City made it a tough game for us," Whitford said. "It felt like when we got out to the big lead, we mistakenly thought the game was going to be a lot easier than it should have been. We didn't play the way we wanted on either end in the first half."

Andrew Scott led Oakland City with 18 points. The Mighty Oaks shot 45 percent in the first half, but the Cardinals limited them to 27 percent in the second.

Tuesday's contest was the first in a stretch in which Ball State will play eight out of nine games at home. The Cardinals welcome IUPUI for a 2 p.m. tip Saturday at Worthen Arena.