The Cardinals improved to 8-4 on the year and upped their perfect home record to 4-0. The Bison, which lead the MEAC in scoring, were held 12 points below their average while falling to 6-6 for the season.
Tayler Persons led all scorers with 20 points on the night and was one of five Cardinals in double figures. Tahjai Teague finished just one rebound shy of his second straight double-double, as he dropped in 17 points to go with nine rebounds. In the first start of his career, Ishmael El-Amin scored 15 points on a 5-of-8 clip from the field in place of an injured K.J. Walton.
Three different Cardinals finished the game with four assists, as the team combined for 19 of them in the game.
"We played well tonight, especially on offense," Ball State coach James Whitford said. "I thought we really shared the ball. We were very efficient on offense. We started out a little slow defensively, but I thought we got better as the game went along."
It had been more than three weeks since the Cardinals played a home game, and El-Amin quickly gave the Worthen Arena crowd something to get excited about with back-to-back 3's to open the game. Persons then sank multiple buckets, including a pair of 3's, as Ball State used the early barrage of shots from distance to jump out to an 18-6 lead.
Howard responded with a 12-3 run and eventually claimed a four-point advantage of its own. However,the Cardinals answered by attacking the basket and drawing fouls, as a series of makes from the charity stripe fueled an 18-4 run to give BSU a 10-point lead. A 3 from Zach Gunn capped the stretch, and Ball State carried a 52-40 advantage into the halftime break.
Out of the locker room, Teague quickly scored six consecutive points before throwing a full-court outlet pass to Persons for a wide-open layup, which prompted a Howard timeout. A 3 from Persons a few plays later pushed the lead to 20. Then a 16-1 stretch left no doubt, as the Cardinals went on to lead by as many as 33 points.
Gunn and Kyle Mallers both added 12 points for Ball State, with Mallers knocking down four 3-pointers.
Ball State won nearly every statistical category, including field goal percentage, where it outshot Howard 58.6 percent to 36.2. The Cardinals outrebounded the Bison 39-35 and scored 32 points in the paint to Howard's 10. BSU led for 38:01 of the 40 minutes.
Howard's R.J. Cole, who entered averaging better than 20 points per game, scored only 11 on 3-for-12 shooting, though he did hand out eight assists. Charles Williams and Raymond Bethea led the Bison with 14 points each.
Ball State will now enjoy its holiday break before returning to Worthen Arena on Saturday, Dec. 29 for a matchup with Delaware State. Tipoff is slated for 2 p.m. on ESPN3.
(Courtesy of BSU Athletics)