Men's Hoops Heads to Central Michigan Eyeing Tourney Bye

Tuesday, February 27

Mount Pleasant, Mich.

7:00 PM ET

Ball State University

Central Michigan

Photo by: Kyle Crawford

Men's Hoops Heads to Central Michigan Eyeing Tourney Bye

February 26, 2018 | Men's Basketball

Game Notes

Cardinals seeking 20 wins for the third straight season

Game 30
Ball State (19-10, 10-6 MAC) at Central Michigan (16-13, 5-11 MAC)
Tuesday, Feb. 27 (7 p.m.)
Mount Pleasant, Mich. (McGuirk Arena)
Watch (ESPN3) | Listen (WLBC) | Live Stats

About the Cardinals
• Ball State will close the regular season with back-to-back road games, starting Tuesday at Central Michigan. The Cardinals beat the Chippewas 82-76 earlier this season in Muncie.

• If the MAC Tournament started today, Ball State would be the No. 3 seed. The top four seeds earn first-round byes and advance straight to Cleveland for the quarterfinals. BSU can clinch a first-round bye with one more victory.

• Ball State is one victory shy of reaching the 20-win mark in three consecutive seasons for the first time since the Cardinals had five straight 20-win campaigns from 1988-93. A win would also give BSU 20 victories in the regular season for the second straight year.

• The Cardinals are coming off an 87-80 loss to Western Michigan despite a 53.6 percent shooting percentage as a team and Tahjai Teague's fifth 20-point game in the past nine. It was Ball State's first loss of the season when shooting at least 50 percent and only its second loss of the year when holding the halftime lead.

• Senior guard Sean Sellers broke the school's career 3-point record Friday against Western Michigan. He hit three in the game to bring his total to 227, surpassing the previous mark of 224 held by Jesse Berry. Sellers is also three games shy of Franko House's school record for career games played (129).

• Junior center Trey Moses leads Ball State in conference play in both scoring (15.1 ppg) and rebounding (9.1 rpg). He averaged 19.0 points and 13.0 rebounds in the Cardinals' two games last week, including a career-high 23 last Tuesday against Northern Illinois.

Scouting Central Michigan
• Central Michigan has dropped five of its past six games but has played some of the league's top teams of late.
• The Chippewas suffered a pair of road losses last week at Western Michigan (83-81 in overtime) and at West Division leader Toledo (89-76).
• Shawn Roundtree leads CMU with 15.2 points and 3.9 assists per game.
• The Chippewas lead the league in free throw shooting at 80 percent while ranking second in turnover margin (+1.8) and third in scoring offense (77.9).
• The Chippewas are in their sixth season under Keno Davis. CMU shared the MAC West title with Ball State two seasons ago.

Series History
• Ball State holds a 65-34 lead in the all-time series with Central Michigan, while the Chippewas hold a 28-20 advantage in Mount Pleasant.
• The Cardinals have won six of the nine meetings with CMU under head coach James Whitford.
• BSU has won the past three meetings, including an 82-76 victory earlier this year in Muncie.
• Tayler Persons is averaging 20.7 points per game over those three wins, while Trey Moses is averaging 15.7 points and 11.3 rebounds.
• Senior guard Sean Sellers is averaging 10.4 points on 16-for-28 (.571) shooting from 3-point range in seven career games against the Chippewas.
• The Cardinals' last visit to Mount Pleasant was a 109-100, overtime victory, as BSU placed seven scorers in double figures for the first time in its Division I history.