Cardinals Top Central Michigan 85-69 for Fourth Straight Win to Finish Season

Friday, March 6

Muncie, Ind.

7 PM

Ball State University

12-19,7-11MAC

Central Michigan

10-21,6-12MAC

Central Mich.

Ball St.

Photo by: Bobby Ellis/Ball State University

Cardinals Top Central Michigan 85-69 for Fourth Straight Win to Finish Season

March 06, 2026 | Men's Basketball

Box Score

MUNCIE, Ind. – The Ball State men's basketball team shot the lights out in the first half and cruised to an 85-69 win over Central Michigan on Friday night at Worthen Arena.

The Cardinals went 72.7 percent (16-22) from the field in the opening 20 minutes, making their last 11 field goal attempts of the period, to open up a 42-26 lead at halftime. Seven different Ball State players scored during the stretch that saw a 12-9 edge at the 10:20 mark of the first half expand into the 16-point advantage at the break. Central would get no closer than 13 points for the remainder of the contest.

Ball State (12-19, 7-11 Mid-American Conference) won its fourth straight game to wrap up the season and ended up knocking the Chippewas (10-21, 6-12 MAC) out of next week's MAC Tournament.

Davion Hill paced the Cardinals with 25 points, six rebounds, three assists and three steals. Kayden Fish (15 points, three rebounds), Devon Barnes (14 points, five assists) and Armoni Zeigler (10 points, seven rebounds, seven assists, two blocks) joined Hill in double figures scoring.

Elmore James IV contributed nine points, while Preston Copeland tallied seven points and Mason Jones posted five points, three rebounds and five assists. Barnes, James IV, Cam Denson and Juwan Maxey were honored in a pregame Senior Day ceremony and started the game.

The Chippewas collected one more rebound (29-28), and both teams finished the game with 12 turnovers, but Ball State held advantages in points from turnovers (16-7), fast break points (12-4) and bench points (55-10). The 55 points off the bench were the most this season for the Cardinals.

Phat Phat Brooks (17 points) and Nathan Claerbaut (16) led CMU in scoring. Central Michigan would've clinched a spot in the MAC Tournament with a win since Buffalo lost at Toledo earlier in the night.

Ball State shot 58.2 percent (32-55) on field goals including 39.1 percent (9-23) on 3-pointers and made 63.2 percent (12-19) of its free throw attempts. The Chippewas went 51.8 percent (29-56) from the field, 25 percent (3-12) from distance and 53.3 percent (8-15) at the foul line.

The Cardinals finished in a tie with Buffalo and UMass for seventh place in the MAC standings but lost the tiebreaker and missed out on the eight-team conference tournament. This was the first time since the 2012-13 season that the Ball State men's basketball team has won at least its last four games to conclude the regular season.