Men's Basketball Hosting Northern Illinois Saturday Afternoon at Worthen Arena

Saturday, January 24

Muncie, Ind.

2 PM

Ball State University

Northern Illinois

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Photo by: Heather Parker

Men's Basketball Hosting Northern Illinois Saturday Afternoon at Worthen Arena

January 23, 2026 | Men's Basketball

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Cardinals Looking for a Third Straight Win

Ball State Men's Basketball
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The Ball State men's basketball team looks to build on momentum from two wins in a row in a 2 p.m. home game Saturday afternoon against Northern Illinois at Worthen Arena.

Rick Johnston and David Eha will be on the ESPN+ broadcast, while Mick Tidrow and Scot Bunnell 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.

Ball State students can enter into a raffle for a 55-inch TCL Smart TV by showing a valid student ID at the marketing table at upper Gate 1. The winner must register during the women's basketball game, which starts at 11 a.m., and will be announced at halftime of the men's game.

Ball State (6-13, 2-5 Mid-American Conference) got a game-winning and-one from Davion Hill in the final seconds of Tuesday's game at Central Michigan to return to Muncie with a 68-67 win. Hill finished with 15 points on the night, while Armoni Zeigler and Devon Barnes paced the Cardinals with 17 points each.

Northern Illinois (6-12, 2-5 MAC) fell 80-77 at Ohio on Tuesday night after beating UMass 70-68 at home last Saturday. The other league win for the Huskies came in the MAC season opener against Central Michigan (74-73 on Dec. 20).

Rashon Burno is in his fifth season as the head coach at NIU after previously being the associate head coach at Arizona State.

The Huskies are the top MAC offensive rebounding team, averaging 13.8 per game (No. 23 in NCAA Division I). Northern Illinois is fourth in the league in rebounding margin (+3.9), free throw attempts per game (23.7) and 3-point defense (32.7 percent).

Sophomore guard Makhai Valentine paces the Huskies in scoring (14.1 points per game) as a high-volume 3-point shooter (122 attempts, third-most in the MAC).

Ball State gets the midweek off and plays at Toledo next Saturday.

HILL BIG OFF THE BENCH: Guard Davion Hill drove to the lane and finished through contact for the game-winning and-one in Ball State's 68-67 win at Central Michigan on Tuesday night.

The redshirt sophomore tallied 15 points, five rebounds, four assists and two steals on the night and has scored in double figures in five straight games.

Hill ranks second on the team in average points both overall (12.3 per game) and in MAC play (15.1) while shooting 51.4 percent from the field against conference opponents.

The guard is 1 of 5 qualified players in the league to average at least 10 points per game with fewer than 10 starts this season. In MAC play, Hill is the leading scorer among those who have started one game or less.

BARNES MAKING BUCKETS: Devon Barnes tied a career high with five 3-pointers on Tuesday night in Mount Pleasant on his way to 17 points.

The senior drained four of those triples in the second half to help the Cardinals stave off a comeback attempt from the Chippewas. Barnes is shooting 35.1 percent (13-37) from distance in conference play and 88 percent (22-25) at the foul line.

HUSKIES ON THE HORIZON: Saturday's game against Northern Illinois will be the final between the Cardinals and Huskies in Muncie as Mid-American Conference foes, as NIU is set to move on to the Horizon League next season.

Ball State returns the trip to Northern Illinois on Saturday, Feb. 28 for one of the last MAC games for the Huskies.

TURNOVER TALK: Ball State committed only five turnovers in Tuesday's triumph at Central Michigan, which was a season-best for the Cardinals.

Seven giveaways was the previous season-low on four separate occasions, and Ball State is the top conference team in turnover margin (+3.4) and taking care of the ball (8.7 turnovers per game) against MAC foes.

WELCOME BACK TOURNEY CHAMPS: Members of Ball State's 1985-86 team will be back on campus and recognized at halftime of Saturday's game.

The MAC Tournament championship was Ball State's second in program history. Senior forward Dan Palombizio was named First Team All-MAC and the MAC Tournament MVP and finished his Ball State career with what were at the time the fourth-most career points and sixth-most career rebounds in program history.

ZEIGLER GETTING STRONGER: Junior Armoni Zeigler has led the Cardinals in points, rebounds and assists in consecutive games after posting 17 points, seven boards and four dimes on Tuesday in Mount Pleasant.

Zeigler averages 17.7 points and 5.3 rebounds a game in MAC play compared to 10.2 points and 4.8 rebounds in the non-conference season. The guard is tenth in the league in scoring and free throw percentage (86.4) in conference action.

The Amityville, N.Y., native scored a career high 30 points on Jan. 13 at Akron and 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.

FINE FROM THE LINE: Ball State hit north of 80 percent of its free throw attempts in three of its last six games, going 25-for-31 (80.6 percent) in the Jan. 16 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 79.3 percent in seven 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.

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 55 more steals than its opponents this season (149-94).

CARDINALS CLAMPING DOWN ON DEFENSE: Ball State ranks second in the Mid-American Conference in scoring defense (70.6 points per game) and fewest fouls committed per game (15.6) while ranking fourth in steals per game (10.6) through the season's first 19 contests.