Men’s Basketball Looks to Regain Home Mojo Tuesday against Miami

Game 18
Ball State (11-7, 2-3 MAC) vs. Miami (9-9, 1-4 MAC)
Tuesday, Jan. 22 (7 p.m.)
Muncie, Ind. (Worthen Arena)
Watch: ESPN+ | Listen: 96.7/104.9 | Live Stats

Setting the Stage
• Ball State and Miami enter Tuesday's game fresh off wins over the weekend. Ball State snapped a three-game losing streak with a road victory over MAC West Division leader Central Michigan, while Miami snapped a four-game skid to start league play with a home win over Akron. Tuesday marks the first of two scheduled meetings between the teams. They will square off again Feb. 19 in Oxford, Ohio.

• The Ball State and Miami rosters feature a combined 14 Indiana natives -- eight for the Cardinals and six for the RedHawks. Among those is a pair of former teammates in Ball State's K.J. Walton and Miami's Darrian Ringo, who played together at Brownsburg High School.

About the Matchup
• Ball State has climbed back into the top 80 in the country in the major power ranking systems, including a high mark of No. 75 in ESPN's BPI. The Cardinals reached a high of No. 49 in the NCAA's NET rankings prior to their recent three-game losing skid. Miami comes in with a high rating of No. 169 in the NET.

• Ball State is looking to return to form at Worthen Arena. The Cardinals were 14-2 at home last year and unbeaten this year until losing their first two home conference games versus Eastern Michigan and Ohio.

• Ball State faces a Miami team paced in scoring by sophomores Nike Sabande (16.1 ppg) and Dalonte Brown (13.8). Senior guard Darrion Ringo leads the MAC in steals per game (2.4) and ranks second in assists per game (5.3), accounting for nearly half of the RedHawks' assist total for the season. Miami ranks 11th in the league in scoring defense, while Ball State leads the league in scoring offense. The RedHawks finished non-conference play at 8-5 before dropping their first four league games.

What's Trending
• Senior point guard Tayler Persons joined an exclusive club Saturday of active Division I players with at least 1,500 career points and 500 career assists. The club is so exclusive it includes only three members right now: Marshall's Jon Elmore (2,223 & 685), Charlotte's Jon Davis (1,818 & 500) and Persons (1,707 & 501).

• Tayler Persons was named the MAC West Division Player of the Week on Monday after averaging 24.5 points over the Cardinals' two road games last week. It was the third time in the past five weeks a Ball State player earned the honor. Junior forward Tahjai Teague previously won the award twice.

• Junior guard K.J. Walton scored a career-high 24 points on 12-of-17 from the floor in Saturday's win at Central Michigan. He scored eight straight points in the decisive stretch of the second half.

• Ball State ranks ninth nationally in team field goal percentage at 50.1 percent. The Cardinals' 57.4 percent performance Saturday at Central Michigan was their third-best of the season.

Men’s Basketball Looks to Regain Home Mojo Tuesday against Miami

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Players Mentioned

Tayler Persons

Tahjai Teague

K.J. Walton