Cardinals Ready for Home Opener Against Mavericks

MUNCIE, Ind. – The Ball State men's basketball team will play in the friendly confines of Worthen Arena for the first time as the Omaha Mavericks make the trip to Muncie on Saturday.

In the previous eight seasons under Head Coach James Whitford, the Cardinals are 7-1 in home openers. Ball State has won the last three opening games in Worthen Arena. BSU looks to improve on the home openers as well as improve on an 0-1 season record.

Despite the loss to Georgia Southern, Ball State has plenty of positives to look at, including Luke Bumbalough who scored a career-high 21 points. He made five 3-pointers, which is one shy of tying a career best. Jalen Windham finished the game with 12 points, two shy of tying a personal best, and tied for a team-high two steals. Miryne Thomas recorded an 11-point performance and tied a team-high two steals along with a team-high three assists. Payton Sparks was huge on the glass for the Cardinals as he collected a game-high 12 rebounds in his debut.

BSU enters the contest with an 0-1 record, while Omaha brings a 1-0 mark to Worthen Arena. This will be the first ever meeting between the Cardinals and Mavericks.

Frankie Fidler leads the Mavericks with 15 points and has added six rebounds. Kyle Luedtke and Marco Smith posted 10 points each in the season opener and each brought down five boards. Darrius Hughes led the team with eight rebounds and chipped in with eight points. Felix Lemetti was the facilitator in the opening contest with a team-high four assists.

The game is scheduled for a noon tip. For every Ball State student that shows their ID when entering tomorrow's game against Omaha, a dollar will be donated to the Ball State Dance Marathon for Riley Hospital for Children.

The game can be seen on ESPN+. All of BSU's games are on Woof Boom Radio's 96.7 FM, 102.9 FM, 104.9 FM, WLBC HD2, and the stream of 967BlakeFM.com as well as WERKFM.net.

Tale of the Tape
Ball State CATEGORY Omaha
71.0 .............................. POINTS PER GAME................................. 67.0
82.0 .......................... OPP. POINTS PER GAME............................ 57.0
.439 ........................ FIELD GOAL PERCENTAGE.......................... .429
.526 .................... OPP. FIELD GOAL PERCENTAGE..................... .344
.367 ................. 3-POINT FIELD GOAL PERCENTAGE.................. .250
.333 ............. OPP. 3-POINT FIELD GOAL PERCENTAGE............. .222
.476 ....................... FREE THROW PERCENTAGE........................ .714
35.0 ........................... REBOUNDS PER GAME.............................. 40.0
-1.0 ........................... REBOUNDING MARGIN............................... +6.0
13.0 .............................. ASSISTS PER GAME................................ 11.0
17.0 .......................... TURNOVERS PER GAME............................. 11.0
-5.0.............................. TURNOVER MARGIN................................. +4.0
8.0 ................................ STEALS PER GAME................................. 10.0
0.0 ................................ BLOCKS PER GAME.................................. 2.0

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*For tickets call 1-888-BSU-TICKET or 765-285-1474, or click here.

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Players Mentioned

Luke Bumbalough

Payton Sparks

Miryne Thomas

Jalen Windham