Some dunks. Some acrobatic moves. The fifth-year senior finished at . . .
The Cardinals (10-7, 3-1 MAC) dominated the final 10 minutes of both halves to run away from the Eagles (10-7, 0-4 MAC) at the EMU Convocation Center. BSU came out on top in a matchup of the top two scoring defenses in the league, holding Eastern Michigan to 32 percent shooting.
Jarron Coleman’s eight assists and Ishmael El-Amin’s seven were both career highs as the BSU guards carved through the zone. Coleman’s drive and behind-the-back pass to Teague midway through the second half beat the shot clock and changed the flow of the game.
Eastern Michigan had whittled an 18-point BSU lead to 40-36 before that play. Kyle Mallers followed with a 3-pointer. Then a Coleman steal and dunk, a Teague fastbreak lay-in and another layup from Coleman. All of a sudden, the Cardinals were back up by 15.
“We just talked about making them take hard shots over the course of 40 minutes,” Ball State head coach James Whitford said. “I thought in the stretch where they rallied … I thought they hit tough shots. They hit the kind of shots we were trying to get them to take. That’s part of the game. And then after that seven-minute stretch, they didn’t.
“We had to clean up the rebounding and handle their pressure a little better. I thought we did that and really played a full 40-minute game.”
It wasn’t much different from the first half when Ball State seized control with a 19-0 run that turned a 11-10 deficit into a 29-11 lead. The Cardinals went on to take a 32-14 advantage into halftime.
El-Amin scored 16 points, hitting 4-of-8 from 3-point range, and Mallers added 10. Noah Morgan led Eastern Michigan with 14.