Moses matched his career-high with 22 points as Ball State earned its first victory over the Golden Flashes since 2005. Teague recorded . . .
Ball State won for the fourth time in the past five games to improve to 16-9 (7-5 MAC). Kent State fell to 12-13 (6-6 MAC) with the loss.
'Both ends of the floor ... were exceptional.' -- BSU head coach James Whitford
Moses (9 for 10) and Teague (8 for 12) combined to shoot 17 for 22 from the floor. Teague hit his first eight shots, and the duo was a combined 15 for 16 at one point fairly late in the game.
“Trey was great, and he’s shown he can do that for a long tim,” Whitford said, adding, “I thought a huge difference in the game tonight was Tahjai’s motor. That’s the hardest I’ve seen Tahjai play in a long time. Seven offensive rebounds in a game is an incredible number.”
Ball State held a 50-30 advantage in the paint and outrebounded Kent State 39-26. The Cardinals’ 56.7 percent shooting performance as a team was their best in MAC play and their second-highest of the season. The only better performance came in November at Indiana State (61.7 percent).
Sean Sellers scored 15 points and connected on a trio 3-pointers to bring his career total to 220. He is now just four treys away from Jesse Berry’s school record of 224.
Tayler Persons was held scoreless in the first half on 0-for-5 shooting but scored 13 points after break. He was 5 for 6 from the floor and 3 for 3 from 3-point range in the second half.
Josh Thompson came off the bench to hit back-to-back 3-pointers as Ball State opened up a double-digit lead midway through the first half. They were the first career 3’s for the walk-on guard, who recorded his first collegiate basket three days earlier against Bowling Green. Thompson finished with a career-high eight points in a career-best 20 minutes.
On the other end, Ball State limited Kent State’s guard duo of Jaylin Walker (15) and Kevin Zabo (11) to a combined 8 for 25 shooting – good for 26 points. Danny Pippen led the Flashes with 17 points. Adonis De La Rosa also reached double figures with 10.
Ball State opened both halves Friday with 7-0 runs and never trailed.
Thompson’s back-to-back 3’s pushed the Cardinals’ lead to 26-15 at the 9:37 mark of the first half, and the Cardinals’ lead was never fewer than eight points from then on out.
Ball State hit its first five shots after the break -- a Sellers 3 and four buckets in the paint -- and took total command at 52-34 less than three minutes into the second half.
Kent State rallied with seven straight points of its own to cut the lead to 52-43, but the Cardinals answered with five in a row and led by double digits the rest of the way.
Next:
Ball State will visit Akron for a 7 p.m. ET tipoff Tuesday. The Cardinals defeated the Zips 111-106 in double overtime back on Jan. 27 in the highest-scoring game in Worthen Arena history.
Kent State tangles with East leading Buffalo on the Bulls hardwood Tuesday (7 p.m. ET). UB nipped the Flashes 82-79 in their first meeting.