Hoosier State Today

The Ball State women's basketball team (15-4, 6-1 MAC) remained undefeated at home (10-0) in Worthen Arena after an impressive 89-66 victory over Akron (13-5, 4-3 MAC) in midweek MACtion Wednesday night. 

Ball State controlled the tempo of tonight's ball game from start to finish and never lost sight of the lead the entire 40 minutes of play.

A big part of tonight's success for the Cardinals was rebounding as Ball State won that battle over Akron, 40-31.

The Cardinals opened tonight's contest with an impressive 16-3 run, capped off by a jumper from redshirt senior Anna Clephane. Ball State's defense held Akron to only 25 percent shooting and 11 points in the first frame. The Cardinals high-intensity defense allowed Ball State to take a 25-11 edge over Akron after the first quarter.

The all-around offensive success in the second frame was unmatched. The Cardinals were making good clean passes and continued to dominate the Zips throughout the remainder of the first half. 

Ball State shot a staggering 61 percent (8-13) from the field in the second stanza and went 8-11 from behind arc. The Cardinals' hot shooting hand earned them the 46-25 cushion over the Zips at intermission. 

After the break, Ball State couldn't be slowed down by the Akron as sophomore Ally Becki drained a 3-pointer at the 4:28 mark in the third period to put Ball State up by 26 (59-33). 

From then on out the Cardinals never looked back despite the Zips efforts and would win the ball game by a 23-point margin.

Five Cardinals reached double figure scoring tonight with sophomore Madelyn Bischoff leading the way with a career best 20 points after shooting 8-10 from the field and 4-5 from the 3-point line. Becki chipped in 13 points while also dishing out eight assists. Both senior Annie Rauch and sophomore Alex Richard each had 12 points apiece and Clephane would end the night with 10. 

Prior to tonight's contest, Clephane was presented with her 1,000th career point commemorative basketball.

The Ball State women's basketball team continues Mid-American Conference action Saturday when it travels to Ohio for a 1 pm tip-off at the Convocation Center. 

Original source can be found here.