Ball State University
Eastern Michigan
WBB Ends MAC Regular Season On The Road Against EMU Saturday
March 02, 2018 | Women's Basketball
Game #29: Ball State at Eastern Michigan
Date: Saturday, March 3, 2018
Tipoff: 2 p.m.
Television: ESPN3
Listen: Muncie Sports Station 102.9 FM/1340 AM
Live Stats: Ball State at Eastern Michigan
Social Media: @BallStateWBB, @BallStateSports, #ChirpChirp
Game Notes: Ball State | Eastern Michigan
- The Ball State women's basketball team suffered a heartbreaking 88-80 loss at Mid-American Conference leader Central Michigan Wednesday night in McGuirk Arena. The Cardinals led for almost the entire contest but lost in the final minutes of the fourth quarter. Ball State will now close out it MAC regular season at Eastern Michigan Saturday at 2 p.m. in the Convocation Center. The Cardinals won their first meeting against the Eagles on Feb. 7 by a score of 91-85 in Worthen Arena.
- Ball State is three games away from tying the programs record for most wins in a season. In 2008-09, the Cardinals went 26-9 under the direction of former head coach Kelly Packard. Current assistant coach, Audrey McDonald-Spencer was the starting guard for that team.
- Ball State's 23-5 record is the best start in program history. Currently, their are only 12 Division I women's basketball programs in the country that have suffered only five losses.
- Ball State finished non-conference play with an 11-0 record and was one of only seven teams nationally to accomplish that goal. The Cardinals were also only one of two non Power 5 teams on that list. Ball State has received votes in both the USAToday Coaches and AP Top 25 polls this season.
- Power 5 conference wins over - Vanderbilt (88-79) and Purdue (66-60). Along with wins over Big East opponent Butler (87-75) and Conference USA Western Kentucky (93-81).
- Ball State has scored at least 80-plus points in 18 out of its 28 games.
- Ball State ranks 38th nationally in the latest RPI which is the third highest ranking of any team in the Mid-American Conference.
- Ball State has four wins over top 100 RPI Teams - Western Kentucky (50), Purdue (60), Toledo (69), and Miami (83).
- Junior guard Carmen Grande ranks second nationally in assists per game (9.4 apg) and second in total assists (264). She currently has 667 career assists and became the program's all-time assists leader at Western Michigan on Saturday, Feb. 10. Grande is currently 10th on the MAC all-time assists list. The record is 810 held by Marti Heckman of Ohio (1983-86).
- The 11 straight non-conference wins marked the second largest win streak in program history (12 in 2008-09 which included win over Tennessee in the NCAA Tournament).
- Senior forward Moriah Monaco has scored 79 times in double figures over her career and is 95 points away from moving up to fifth on the program's all-time scoring list.
- Head Coach Brady Sallee currently sits at 118 wins at Ball State and needs one to become the programs all-time winningest coach. Tracy Roller holds the record at 118-72 from 2001-08.
- Eastern Michigan holds a 10-18 record heading into today's contest and a 6-11 MAC record. The Eagles have lost four-straight suffering losses to Central Michigan (95-82), Toledo (80-69), Northern Illinois (84-75) and Western Michigan (74-66).
- Saturday's game against Eastern Michigan will mark the 78th time in program history the two schools have met with the Eagles leading the all-time series, 40-37. The Cardinals won their last meeting over Eastern Michigan by a score of 91-85 on Feb. 7, 2018 in Worthern Arena. Head coach Brady Sallee holds an overall record of 9-4 against Eastern Michigan from 2012-13 to present.
- Eastern Michigan is paced by Danielle Minott leads the team averaging 16.4 points per game. Behind Minott is Courtnie Lewis who is scoring 14.7 points per contest while teammate Sasha Dailey rounds out the double figure scoring for the Eagles with 13.0 points per game.
- The Eagels are led by head coach Fred Castro who is in his second season at EMU. He owns an 0-3 record over the Cardinals and overall coaching mark of 16-43 with the Eagles.
- Ball State has earned a first round bye to the upcoming 2018 MAC Tournament in Cleveland with today's victory. This marks the fifth time under sixth year head coach Brady Sallee the Cardinals have earned their ticket straight to Cleveland.
- The win over Tennessee State Nov. 22 gave head coach Brady Sallee his 100th win at Ball State. Sallee became only the second head coach in program history to accomplish that feat, quicker than Tracy Roller did from 2001-08. Roller ended her tenure at Ball State with an 118-73 overall mark.
- With the win over Purdue, sixth year head coach Brady Sallee has now defeated four Power 5 conference schools during his tenure at Ball State; Minnesota (54-51, 2012-13), Iowa (77-72, 2015-16), Vanderbilt (88-79, 2017-18) and Purdue (66-60, 12/4).
