The Eastern Michigan University men’s basketball team started its Mid-American Conference schedule with contests versus Northern Illinois and Central Michigan. The Eagles will take a bus trip to Muncie, Ind. to play the Ball State University Cardinals.
EMU (6-9, 1-0 MAC) ended its nine-game road trip on a positive note with a conference road win over Northern Illinois, just its second win of that trip. The win came after a disappointing performance in the Santa Clara Cable Car Classic, with losses against Santa Clara and Air Force.
With the season now past the halfway point, the leading scorer for Eastern Michigan is senior guard Darrell Lampley who averages 14.4 points per game. Junior forward Jamell Harris remains the team leader in rebounds (95 total rebounds) with an average of 6.3 per game heading into the contest against Central Michigan.
Ball State (9-4, 1-0 MAC) is in first place in the MAC West division and is riding a three-game win streak. The Cardinals started their MAC schedule with a win against Western Michigan.
The Cardinals got off to a shaky start with two losses against Arizona and Indiana State on the road. BSU then began a six-game winning streak that included a 58-55 win over defending national runner-up Butler and has gone on to win three out of its last five games.
What has made the Cardinals tough to beat is a defense that holds their opponents to 57.8 points per game, leading the MAC. The offense ranks second in the conference in assists (14.6 per game), which shows this team shares the basketball and moves the ball around to look for scoring chances.
One player to keep an eye on is Ball State’s Jarrod Jones. The six-foot-nine senior forward is second in the MAC in scoring (18 PPG), third in total rebounds (109), fourth in free throw percentage (.818) and third in defensive rebounds (78). Jones scored a career-high 26 points this year against Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis. He has been an accurate shooter, with the team lead in field goal percentage (.561).
Jones won the MAC West Player of the Week award Monday, after scoring 20 points and recording eight rebounds in the game against WMU. He has won the award three times this season for the weeks of Nov. 14, Dec. 12 and Jan. 2, for a total of 10 times in his career.
Jones scores his points by going low under the basket or by charging towards the net for the score. The defense must get in his face to take away any possible scoring opportunities.
Harris and EMU’s centers have the difficult task of taking rebounds away from Jones, and it will be very important in order to stop Jones from scoring on second chances.
Eastern Michigan plays Ball State at 2 p.m. Saturday in Muncie, Ind. The next home game for
EMU will be against in-state rival Western Michigan at 7 p.m. Jan. 18 in the Convocation Center.
