Rested Cardinals Travel to Atlanta for Matchup with Georgia Tech

Game 10
Ball State (5-4, 0-0 MAC) at Georgia Tech (4-4, 1-1 ACC)
Wednesday, Dec. 18 (7 p.m.)
Atlanta, Ga. (McCamish Pavilion)
Watch: ACC Network Extra/Fox Sports Indiana Plus* | Listen: 96.7/104.9 | Live Stats

*Wednesday's game will be available on Fox Sports Indiana Plus among a variety of regional sports networks (full list of affiliates). It will also air on ACC Network Plus, which is available to anyone with access to ACC Network as part of their cable or streaming service.

Setting the Stage
• Ball State returns to action after a 10-day break from competition with a visit to Georgia Tech for the first-ever meeting between the programs. This marks the third straight year the Cardinals will play an ACC opponent. BSU defeated No. 9/8 Notre Dame on the road in December 2017 and fell to No. 16/17 Virginia Tech at the Charleston Classic in November 2018.

• Ball State snapped a two-game skid its last time out with its most decisive victory of the season, 102-54 over IUPUI. Georgia Tech returns home after suffering a 67-53 defeat over the weekend at eighth-ranked Kentucky. Following Wednesday's matchup, Ball State will head straight from Atlanta to Honolulu for three games at the Hawaiian Airlines Diamond Head Classic the week of Christmas.

The Matchup
• Wednesday's game is a non-bracketed contest as part of both teams' participation in next week's Hawaiian Airlines Diamond Head Classic. The teams will be on opposite sides of the bracket in Honolulu and could not meet each other until the third and final game.

• Ball State has only three previous matchups against opponents that were in the ACC at the time of the meeting -- No. 1 Duke in the 2001 Maui Invitational championship game (83-71 loss), No. 9 Notre Dame in 2017 (80-77 win) and No. 16 Virginia Tech in last season's Charleston Classic (73-64 loss). The Cardinals have played a total of six current members of the ACC, several of them long before they joined, compiling a record of 3-13 (2-4 outside of Notre Dame). Two of the wins came in the NCAA Tournament -- 1989 versus Pittsburgh and 1990 versus Louisville.

• Georgia Tech is the top shot blocking team in the ACC and fourth nationally at 6.8 blocks per game. James Banks III swats 3.9 of them per game to rank third in the country individually. The Yellow Jackets are holding opponents to just 37.6 percent shooting from the floor. They have played two ACC games already, winning at NC State and falling at home to Syracuse. Michael Devoe leads three double-figure scorers for Georgia Tech at 19.4 points per game. He has connected on 18 of the team's 43 made 3's.

• Georgia Tech is the highest-rated team Ball State has faced so far this season at No. 93 in the Ken Pomeroy ratings. That will stand only until Sunday's first game of the Diamond Head Classic when the Cardinals face a Washington team that is No. 22 in the latest AP poll.

What's Trending
• Ball State is coming off its second 100-point outing of the year, having scored a season-high 102 in the win over IUPUI. Redshirt freshman guard Jarron Coleman scored a career-high 20 points on 7-of-8 shooting from the floor, 3-of-4 from 3-point range and 3-of-3 from the foul line.

• Junior guard Ishmael El-Amin has connected on 29 of his past 50 attempts from the field (.580), 15 of his past 24 from 3-point range (.625) and 17 of his past 19 from the free throw line (.895). El-Amin scored career highs in back-to-back games with 21 points against Western Illinois and 24 versus Loyola Chicago and now leads the Cardinals at 15.4 points per game for the season, nearly 10 full points better than his career average entering the year (5.6). He has reached double figures in eight straight games.

• Fifth-year senior Tahjai Teague registered a career-high six blocks and surpassed 750 career rebounds in the IUPUI game. Teague's 756 career boards rank ninth among all active D-I players and first among MAC players. His 17 career doubles rank second among active MAC players, behind only Toledo's Willie Jackson (19).

• After hitting 15 attempts from beyond the arc against IUPUI, Ball State is up to 13th nationally in 3-pointers at 10.3 per game. The Cardinals made a school-record 21 of them earlier this season against Howard. Last year, BSU ranked 313th nationally with just 6.1 made 3's per game.

Rested Cardinals Travel to Atlanta for Matchup with Georgia Tech

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Players Mentioned

Jarron Coleman

Ishmael El-Amin

Tahjai Teague