Men’s Hoops Squad Heads to Windy City for First Meeting with UIC

Game 3
Ball State (1-1, 0-0 MAC) at UIC (1-1, 0-0 Horizon)
Wednesday, Nov. 13 (7 p.m. CT/8 ET)
Chicago, Ill. (Credit Union 1 Arena)
Watch: ESPN+ | Listen: 96.7/104.9 | Live Stats

Setting the Stage
• Ball State travels to Chicago for its second straight road game, its first-ever meeting with UIC and its first of two contests in the season's second week. BSU will square off with Indiana State on Sunday at Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis. The Cardinals rallied from 25 points down Saturday at Evansville to get within one in the final minute before coming up on the short end, 79-75, and falling to 1-1.

• UIC split two games in its opening week with a 75-72 win over NAIA Olivet Nazarene and a 92-46 loss at No. 14 Memphis. The leading scorer for both teams enters Wednesday's matchup averaging 15.5 points per game -- Tahjai Teague for BSU and Godwin Boahen for UIC. Teague scored 18 of his team-high 20 points in the second half at Evansville.

The Matchup
• Despite being separated by only about 200 miles, Ball State and UIC have never met in men's basketball. The Flames are one of two first-time Horizon League opponents on the schedule this year. The other is Northern Kentucky, which will visit Muncie next week.

• Ball State is 27-16 all-time against current members of the Horizon League. Outside of in-state foe IUPUI, the Cardinals have not matched up with current members of the conference often in recent history. Among current Horizon League members, the last team Ball State faced other than IUPUI was Cleveland State in November 2013. Common BSU foe Valparaiso left the league for the Missouri Valley Conference in 2017.

• UIC returns 10 letterwinners and all five starters from last year's team that finished 16-16 overall and tied for fourth in the Horizon League at 10-8. The Flames were picked third in the Horizon's preseason poll behind Wright State and Northern Kentucky. UIC's Tarkus Ferguson (first-team) and Marcus Ottey (second-team) were preseason all-conference picks but missed the Flames' first two games. Both are 1,000-point career scorers, as is teammate Godwin Boahen.

• Ball State won last season in Chicago, taking down a Loyola Ramblers program coming off a Final Four appearance. The Cardinals won that game 75-69 behind 22 points from K.J. Walton and 14 from Tahjai Teague.

What's Trending
• Ball State shot 71 percent from the floor during a furious second-half comeback Saturday at Evansville. It was the first time in eight years the Cardinals topped the 70 percent mark for a half. The last time was Dec. 23, 2011 in the second half of a 71-48 win at UT Martin (72 percent).

• The Cardinals are averaging 10.5 3-pointers per game through their first two contests after making just 4.9 per game in conference play last year. Kyle Mallers, Ishmael El-Amin and Luke Bumbalough lead the way with five treys each, with Bumbalough hitting 5-of-7 and El-Amin making 5-of-9. The Cardinals hit 8-of-14 from deep in the second half at Evansville. Their 12 makes from deep in the opener versus Defiance were more than they had in all but one game last season.

• BSU is shooting only 45.5 percent from the free throw line after hitting 9-of-18 in the win over Defiance and 6-of-15 in the four-point loss at Evansville.

• Ball State is off to a good start at limiting turnovers. The Cardinals ranked in the bottom quarter of the country last year in turnover rate (20.2). Through this season's first two games, BSU has turned it over 20 times for a rate that ranks 33rd nationally (13.5).

• Redshirt freshman guard Jarron Coleman is BSU's early-season team leader in assists per game (3.5) and is tied with Tahjai Teague as the squad's top rounder (6.0 rpg). He has also scored 10 points in both games.

Men’s Hoops Squad Heads to Windy City for First Meeting with UIC

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Players Mentioned

Luke Bumbalough

Jarron Coleman

Ishmael El-Amin

Kyle Mallers

Tahjai Teague

K.J. Walton