The aftermath: Ball State 76, SIUE 55

SIUE had the same problems Tuesday they have had throughout the season.

The Cougars were out-rebounded 38-28, fouled too much, shot 35 percent from the field and were outmatched from the start in a 76-55 loss to Ball State in front of 1,708 spectators at the Vadalabene Center.

SIUE (1-6) got off to a sluggish start, trailing 13-2 early and 38-24 at halftime.

Head Coach Lennox Forrester said the Cougars were not ready from the outset.

“I think slow starts come from how hard we are playing,” Forrester said. “A couple of shots didn’t fall for us, and then we made some mental mistakes, but I thought our guys picked it up and played pretty hard.”

Matt Kamieniecki scored his only two points on Ball State’s first possession, and a pair of free throws by SIUE junior Mark Yelovich tied the game at two. That was as close as SIUE was going to get. The Cougars missed their next four shots from the field while Ball State made their next four and got a three-point play from potential NBA Draft pick Jarrod Jones.

Jones scored seven points in the first half, and Forrester said his team did a good job eliminating Jones from an offensive standpoint. Still, the 6-foot-9 center ended the game with 22 points.

“Our goal going in was to eliminate their best player in points and I thought our guys did a good job with that,” Forrester said. “We gave him some easy baskets because we made some mistakes helping on defense.”

Jones is a dual-threat. Aside from his ability to be a dynamic presence in the post, he can step back and hit the three. Jones was 1-1 from beyond the arc, and is a perfect 5-5 on the season.

“We knew he could shoot and he is great on the block,” Forrester said. “So, our game plan was to double him whenever he got the basketball. I thought our big guys did a good job of not letting him get the ball so easily in the post, but [Ball State] did a good job ball screening and popping him to where we can step out and shoot the basketball.”

Because the Cougars keyed so much on Jones, it allowed Jesse Berry to find looks and give SIUE even more problems. Berry led all scorers with a season-high 25 points. Berry was 4-8 from beyond the arc, going 2-4 in each half.

“Whether we were in the zone or man [defense], they made some tough shots,” Forrester said. “Sometimes, that’s how it goes.”

While Ball State was hitting their shots at a 47 percent clip, the Cougars struggled, shooting below 40 percent for the fourth time this season.  SIUE was 4-24 on their 3-point attempts, and started the game 1-10.

Kris Davis, who entered the game leading the nation in 3-point percentage, was just 1-5 in his first collegiate start, scoring seven points on 3-8 shooting. Corey Wickware was 0-5, Charles Joy was 0-4 and Jerome Jones was 0-3.

“I think we missed some shots tonight because we weren’t ready to shoot the basketball yet ,and we were shooting it. I always tell the guys those are considered bad shots. If you aren’t ready to shoot it, don’t shoot it,” Forrester said. “I thought we missed some open shots, but also, our threes were not falling, but we continued to take them.”

Yelovich scored in double-figures, as he has in each game this season with 10 points, but Forrester said he was unable to get into a rhythm because of foul trouble early on.

“I thought Mark took himself out of the game because of fouls,” Forrester said. “He wasn’t ready to play defense and that’s one thing he has to learn. You have to be ready all the time and he wasn’t ready. They made him pay by fouling and he couldn’t get into the flow of the game because he was on the bench.”

Jones and Michael Messer were the other Cougars in double-figures, each with 12 points. Derian Shaffer, Davis and Joy had seven.

Fouling has been an issue all season, and it’s not just Yelovich. The Cougars committed 22 personal fouls, and have fouled more than 20 times in all but one game this season. They sent Ball State to the free-throw line 29 times, where they converted 22 shots into points. Jarrod Jones was 9-11.
Forrester said defense is the root of the problem.

“We have to do a better job playing defense without fouling,” Forrester said. “We are trying to be aggressive and pick guys up and not just let them come down and run whatever they want to run.”

The Cougars play their fourth consecutive home game at 7 p.m. Saturday and look to get back on track when they host Hannibal LaGrange of the NAIA.

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