Men's Basketball Returning Home to Host Ohio on Friday Night

Friday, January 16

Muncie, Ind.

8:30 PM

Ball State University

Ohio

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Photo by: Samantha Blankenship

Men's Basketball Returning Home to Host Ohio on Friday Night

January 15, 2026 | Men's Basketball

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CBS Sports Network to Televise 8:30 PM Game

Ball State Men's Basketball
Game 18 vs. Ohio	Friday, Jan. 16 at 8:30 p.m. Live Stats \| CBS Sports Network \| Listen
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The Ball State men's basketball team returns home to Worthen Arena following a two-game road trip to host Ohio at 8:30 p.m. on Friday.

The contest will be broadcast on CBS Sports Network with Dave Ryan and Jordan Taylor on the call, while Mick Tidrow and David Eha handle the radio call on WMUN 92.5 FM / 1340 AM and on the WMUN app. Links to both broadcasts, tickets and live stats can be found above and on the schedule page.

Friday at Worthen will be the ALS Awareness Game, as both teams will wear Hoops4ALS warmup shirts to spotlight the need for support for those afflicted by ALS and research to find a cure.
Ball State (4-13, 0-5 Mid-American Conference) got 30 points from Armoni Zeigler and made a late charge on Tuesday night at Akron but fell 87-77.

Ohio (10-8, 4-2 MAC) fell 101-85 at Toledo on Tuesday after winning five games in a row prior to that. The Bobcats boast league wins at Central Michigan and Eastern Michigan and at home over UMass and Buffalo while dropping contests to the Rockets and Bowling Green.

Jeff Boals is in his seventh season as the head coach in Athens. Ohio was picked to finish fourth in the MAC preseason poll after going 16-16 (10-8) to tie for fourth in the 2024-25 final conference standings.

The Bobcats are eighth in the league in both scoring offense (78.4 points per game) and scoring defense (77.2). Ohio ranks seventh in the MAC in turnover margin (+0.6) and 11^th in rebounding margin (-1.1).

Senior guard Jackson Paveletzke averages the sixth-most points (17.1) and fourth-most assists (4.8) per game in the MAC while maintaining the fourth-best field goal percentage (52.4) among qualifiers. Senior forward Aidan Hadaway scores 13.7 points per game and is the league's fourth-leading rebounder (7.6 per game) while posting four double-doubles this season (fifth in the MAC).

Next on the schedule for the Cardinals is a road game at Central Michigan on Tuesday.

ZEIGLER FOR 30: Junior Armoni Zeigler tied his career high with 30 points on Tuesday night at Akron, becoming the first Ball State men's basketball player in five years to reach the 30-point mark.

The guard went 11-for-18 from the field including 3-for-6 on 3-pointers and made all five free throw attempts to be the first Cardinal since Jarron Coleman with 30+ points in a game (33 on March 11, 2021 vs Toledo). It was only the fourth 30-point game for a Ball State player in the last nine seasons.

TV GAME AT WORTHEN ARENA: Friday night's game against the Bobcats was originally scheduled for the following Saturday but was moved up to be aired on CBS Sports Network.

Ball State's most recent home MAC game on a Friday was back on March 3, 2023 against Toledo in a game that was also broadcast on CBS Sports Network.

HILL GETS HOT: Guard Davion Hill led the Cardinals in scoring (22 points) and rebounding (seven) on Saturday at UMass, with 18 of those points coming in the second half. Hill followed that up with 15 points, six rebounds and three assists on Tuesday at Akron.

The redshirt sophomore hit three 3-pointers in the last four minutes of the contest and ranks second on the team in average points both overall (11.8 per game) and in MAC play (14.4) while shooting 54.2 percent from the field against conference opponents.

EFFICIENT ELMORE: Senior guard Elmore James IV has scored in double figures in five of the last six games including 17 points on Tuesday night at Akron.

Ball State's most experienced Mid-American Conference veteran has stepped up his production in MAC play as he is averaging 13.2 points per game on 44.2 percent (23-52) shooting from the field and has made 11 of 12 free throw attempts.

James faces off with his former team for the first time on Friday, as he played for the Bobcats for three seasons (2022-25). A return game to Athens is set for Feb. 17.

FINE FROM THE LINE: Ball State hit north of 80 percent of its free throw attempts in two straight games recently, going 13-for-15 (86.7 percent) from the line on Jan. 6 vs Eastern Michigan a game after making 82.6 percent (19-23) of its free throw attempts the previous Saturday at Buffalo.

The most recent time the Cardinals shot that well from the foul line was March 4, 2025 against Central Michigan with a 91.7 percent (11-12) mark. Ball State's last game shooting over 80 percent from the line on at least 20 attempts before the game with Buffalo was Feb. 11, 2025 in an overtime win against Eastern Michigan (89.3 percent, 25-for-28).

Ball State has picked up its shooting at the charity stripe in conference play, going 79.6 percent in five games against MAC foes as opposed to 64.8 percent in 12 games with nonconference opponents. The Cardinals are third in the league in free throw percentage in conference games.

MAC-SBC MATCHUP ANNOUNCED: Ball State will face Louisiana Monroe on Saturday, Feb. 7 in the second leg of the MAC-Sun Belt Conference.

The Cardinals faced the other Sun Belt team from the Bayou State in the season opener, as they beat the Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns 75-64 on Nov. 3 in Muncie.

HISTORIC NIGHT: Ball State held an opponent to 30 points or fewer for the first time in almost 80 years in the 93-30 win over Earlham on Dec. 29.

The last time the Cardinals limited a team to that low of a scoring output was in a Jan. 14, 1946 win at Wabash (37-30). Ball State's most recent home game preventing a team from surpassing the 30-point threshold was on Jan. 20, 1945 in a 47-24 decision against Anderson.

Ball State's 63-point margin of victory over the Quakers was the highest since a 70-point decision on Nov. 7, 2022 against Earlham as well (109-39).

YOUNG GUYS WITH CAREER HIGHS: A trio of underclassmen set career highs in the Dec. 29 win against Earlham.

Freshman Preston Copeland went for 18 points on 8-for-10 shooting from the field, while sophomore Kody Clancy posted collegiate bests in points (11) and assists (five). Freshman forward Easton Foster tallied six points and four rebounds in a career-high 12 minutes of playing time.

BENCH SCORING IN BUNCHES: Ball State's bench scored a season-high 48 points against Miami on Dec. 20, surpassing the 40-point mark in bench scoring for the second time this season (44 vs Le Moyne). The Cardinals' bench did this a third time when it produced 44 points vs Earlham.

James IV (20 points) scored nearly half of those against Miami followed by Kayden Fish (10), Zeigler (7), Juwan Maxey (7) and Jai Anthoni Bearden (4).

DOUBLE DIGIT STEALS: Ball State collected 10 steals on Saturday at UMass, making it the fifth time this season the Cardinals have had 10+ steals in a game.

Ball State also had double figures in that category against Mansfield (11) and Little Rock (10) in November and Evansville and South Dakota State in December. This is the first time since the 2019-20 season that the Cardinals have had four non-conference games with 10+ steals.

CARDINALS CLAMPING DOWN ON DEFENSE: Ball State is second in the Mid-American Conference in scoring defense (70.8 points per game) and fewest fouls committed per game (15.8) and fourth in steals per game (7.8) and turnovers margin (+2.5) through the season's first 17 contests.