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Ball State Cardinals (11-10, 3-6 MAC) at Western Michigan Broncos (8-13, 5-4 MAC)
Kalamazoo, Michigan; Saturday, 1 p.m. EST
BOTTOM LINE: Ball State takes on the Western Michigan Broncos after Basheer Jihad scored 22 points in Ball State’s 81-72 loss to the Bowling Green Falcons.
The Broncos have gone 4-5 at home. Western Michigan allows 75.5 points to opponents and has been outscored by 2.5 points per game.
The Cardinals have gone 3-6 against MAC opponents. Ball State is seventh in the MAC with 34.9 rebounds per game led by Jihad averaging 7.8.
Western Michigan averages 73.0 points per game, 2.4 more points than the 70.6 Ball State allows. Ball State has shot at a 46.1% rate from the field this season, 1.3 percentage points above the 44.8% shooting opponents of Western Michigan have averaged.
The matchup Saturday is the first meeting of the season for the two teams in conference play.
TOP PERFORMERS: Seth Hubbard is averaging 15.4 points for the Broncos. B. Artis White is averaging 11.0 points over the last 10 games for Western Michigan.
Jalin Anderson is averaging 15.2 points, 4.6 assists and 1.6 steals for the Cardinals. Jihad is averaging 20.9 points and 8.4 rebounds while shooting 48.1% over the past 10 games for Ball State.
LAST 10 GAMES: Broncos: 6-4, averaging 80.4 points, 38.0 rebounds, 17.1 assists, 5.5 steals and 2.8 blocks per game while shooting 48.7% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 75.8 points per game.
Cardinals: 3-7, averaging 74.1 points, 33.6 rebounds, 12.5 assists, 5.0 steals and 3.0 blocks per game while shooting 45.8% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 75.0 points.
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The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.
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