Men's Basketball Back on the Road for a Tuesday Night Game at Central Michigan

Tuesday, January 20

Mount Pleasant, Mich.

7 PM

Ball State University

Central Michigan

Photo by: Heather Parker

Men's Basketball Back on the Road for a Tuesday Night Game at Central Michigan

January 19, 2026 | Men's Basketball

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The Ball State men's basketball team hits the road again looking to maintain momentum into a Tuesday night game at Central Michigan.

The 7 p.m. contest from McGuirk Arena will be broadcast on ESPN+, 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 and live stats can be found above and on the schedule page.

Ball State (5-13, 1-5 Mid-American Conference) beat Ohio 76-71 on Friday night at home, as Armoni Zeigler led the Cardinals in points (28), rebounds (seven) and assists (four). The Bobcats got within one point on three occasions late in the contest, but the hosts never relinquished the lead.

Central Michigan (5-13, 1-5 MAC) got the weekend off, as the Chippewas most recently fell 100-61 at Miami last Tuesday. Central's lone win of the conference season was the game prior to that, topping Kent State 87-85 on Jan. 10 to hand the Golden Flashes their only MAC defeat so far.

Head coach Andy Bronkema is in his first season leading the Chippewas after 12 seasons as the head coach at NCAA Division II Ferris State where he won a national championship during the 2017-18 season.

Central paces the MAC in blocks per game (4.3) while ranking 11^th in the league in both scoring offense (72.1 points per game) and scoring defense (79.9).

Senior center Nathan Claerbaut leads the Chippewas with 12.7 points per game, paces the MAC in total blocks (32) and blocks per game (1.78) and ranks third in the league in field goal shooting (58.3 percent) and 10^th in rebounds per game (6.2).

Ball State is next set to host Northern Illinois at 2 p.m. on Saturday.

CLOSE CALLS VS CMU: Both games last season between the Cardinals and Chippewas were won by two points by the road team, as Ball State claimed an 82-80 triumph in Mount Pleasant on Jan. 21 before Central took a 69-67 decision on March 4 in Muncie.

The Cardinals completed a 13-point second half comeback, getting three free throws in the closing seconds from Jeremiah Hernandez to escape with the road win. Six of the last seven meetings between the MAC foes have been decided by single digits.

BEATING THE BOBCATS: Ball State led from start to finish in Friday night's 76-71 win over Ohio, preventing the Bobcats from tying the game or taking the lead on three occasions late in the contest when Ohio cut the deficit to one point.

The winning decision against the Bobcats was Ball State's first since Feb. 1, 2020 (65-54 in Muncie). The Cardinals are set to make the return trip to Athens on Feb. 17 searching for the program's first road win at Ohio since Jan. 9, 2018.

ZEIGLER'S BIG WEEK: Junior Armoni Zeigler posted 28 points, seven rebounds and four assists on Friday night to lead Ball State to the win over Ohio.

The guard scored 20 of those points in the first half and made a shot with just over a minute to play in the game to give the Cardinals a 71-68 lead. This came a game after 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.

Overall for the week, Zeigler averaged 29.0 points, 6.0 rebounds and 2.5 assists per game while shooting 56.3 percent (18-32) from the field, 55.6 percent (5-9) on 3-pointers and 94.4 percent (17-18) on free throws.

The guard was 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.

HILL GETS HOT: Guard Davion Hill has scored in double figures in four straight games as he tallied 19 points, four rebounds and four assists in Friday night's win over Ohio.

The redshirt sophomore led the Cardinals in scoring (22 points) and rebounding (seven) on Jan. 10 at UMass, with 18 of those points coming in the second half. Hill followed that up with 15 points, six rebounds and three assists last Tuesday at Akron.

The redshirt sophomore ranks second on the team in average points both overall (12.2 per game) and in MAC play (15.2) while shooting 56.9 percent from the field against conference opponents.

EFFICIENT ELMORE: Senior guard Elmore James IV has scored in double figures in five of the last seven 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 11.8 points per game on 40.7 percent (24-59) shooting from the
field and has made 13 of 14 free throw attempts.

FINE FROM THE LINE: Ball State hit north of 80 percent of its free throw attempts in three of its last five games, going 25-for-31 (80.6 percent) in Friday's win over Ohio. The Cardinals went 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 better than 85 percent 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 79.8 percent in six 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.

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.

DOUBLE DIGIT STEALS: Ball State collected 10 steals on Jan. 10 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. Ball State has collected 51 more steals than its opponents this season (141-90).

CARDINALS CLAMPING DOWN ON DEFENSE: Ball State leads the Mid-American Conference in scoring defense (70.8 points per game) while ranking second in fewest fouls committed per game (15.8) and fourth in steals per game (7.8) and turnover margin (+2.5) through the season's first 18 contests.