Basketball Falls in MAC West Tilt, 64-49, to Ball State

Box score.

MUNCIE, Ind. (EMUEagles.com) – The Eastern Michigan University men's basketball team suffered a 64-49 setback at the hands of Ball State University in a Mid-American Conference West Division matchup here at John E. Worthen Arena Wednesday, Feb. 23.

Senior forward Brandon Bowdry (St. Louis, Mo.-Taylor (Mich.) Truman) tallied his 37th career double with 17 points and 11 rebounds and moved into second place on the all-time rebounds list in the loss, moving one carom ahead of EMU great Earl Dixon ('72).

With the setback, the Eagles fall to 8-19 overall, 4-9 in the MAC while the Cardinals improve to 16-11 (8-5 MAC).

Jarrod Jones helped Ball State to the comeback win as he led all scorers with 18 points and pulled down a game-high 14 rebounds, tallying 12 points and 10 boards in the second half alone. He was backed by Chris Bond's 16 points.

After going into the locker room with a 26-24 lead, the Eagles came out firing in the second half with back-to-back three's by J.R. Sims (Fort Wayne, Ind.-Nelson Snider) and Antonio Green (Inkster, Mich.-Dearborn Heights Robichaud) to push the EMU lead to 32-26 just over a minute into the half.

Then it was Ball State's turn to make a run as it stormed back with a 16-4 rally to go up 42-36 with 13:52 left in the game. At the 12:12 mark in the second half, Kamil Janton (Tarnow, Poland-Chicago Bartlett) connected on a layup to cut the deficit to 45-40, but that would be the last field for EMU for some time.

The Eagles would go scoreless for the next six-and-a-half minutes and struggled to connect on a field goal until Kenny Stewart (Williamsport, Pa.-Notre Dame Prep-Weatherford CC) converted a baby hook in the lane with 3:43 to go in the game to make it 58-44. By that time it was too late.

Meanwhile, the Cardinals lead grew to as many as 17 points after Randy Davis made it 61-44 with just over three minutes left to play.

The first half was a back-and-forth battle between the two teams as the Eagles jumped out their largest lead of the half just before the midway point at, 16-11, with Bowdry scoring 10 of the team's first 12 points including knocking down back-to-back three-pointers to open the game.

The Cardinals would respond with an eight-point run to take a one point lead before the Eagles rallied back with seven unanswered points to make the score 24-19, EMU. Each team exchanged a bucket in the final 3:08 as the Eagles went into the locker room with a 26-24 lead.

Bowdry nearly posted a double-double in the first half as he led all scorers with 13 points and eight rebounds while Jamell Harris (Euclid,Ohio-Euclid) added six points. Chris Bond led the Cardinals with eight points in the first stanza and Jarrod Jones added six as well.

The Eagles shot 32.1 percent (17-of-53) for the game while the Cardinals chipped in a 38.2 percent (21-of-55) clip. BSU turned in a superb night at the free throw line, making 20-of-25 attempts shile EMU went just 8-of-11 from the charity stripe.

The Eagles will be back in action this Sunday, Feb. 27, when take on Western Michigan at 2 p.m. at the Convocation Center. During halftime, the team will honor EMU great Earl Boykins ('98) by retiring his No. 11 jersey into the rafters. The first 500 fans will receive a “shirzee” in honor of Boykins.

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Team Stats

Brandon Bowdry

Antonio Green

Jamell Harris

Darrell Lampley

Eastern Michigan Athletics