After playing its first two games on the road, Ball State women’s basketball returned to Worthen Arena and improved to 3-0 in front of the home crowd.
The Cardinals (3-0) defeated Northern Kentucky (0-3), 95-64, on Wednesday, Nov. 12, to continue their undefeated start to the season. After a 10-10 start to the game, Ball State ended the first quarter with an 18-3 run and held a comfortable double-digit lead the rest of the way.
“Clearly, we’re thrilled with the way we came out today,” Ball State coach Brady Sallee said. “We talked a lot about taking care of our home court and caring about how we performed on our home court, and I thought they were gangbusters. We hit shots early that allowed us to get into the press, and then I thought we overwhelmed them a bit with the press.”
The press defense certainly seemed to fluster the NKU offense. The Norse turned it over 21 times, with 14 of those being logged as steals by Ball State, and the Cardinals managed to turn those turnovers into 25 points.
“Any time you can pick up free points, whether it’s O-boards or free throws or points off turnovers, I think it’s a way you score 95 points, right?” Sallee said. “We work really hard at the press, we practice it every day. To see them work at it, and then it looked like it did, that’s a good thing.”
Graduate senior forward Bree Salenbien — the reigning Mid-American Conference player of the week — led the Cardinals in scoring with a second-straight 20-point game while adding seven rebounds and two steals. She overcame a slow start with zero first-half field goals and scored 18 of her points in the second half.
The transfer from Gonzaga has embraced a bigger role in Muncie than she ever played in Spokane, and the results have been stellar for Ball State’s frontcourt thus far.
“It wasn’t working at first, and then, I mean, I didn’t have to do anything, to be honest, because we had so many contributions today,” Salenbien said. “Just still playing in the system. I’m given an opportunity to do what I can do here, and all I have to do is go out there and capitalize on it.”
Salenbien wasn’t the only transfer who had a big night in her first game at Worthen. Junior guard Karsyn Norman, a transfer from Butler, stuffed the stat sheet with a career-high 18 points, seven rebounds, five assists, and three steals. Her five assists led the team as the Cardinals had an assist on 19 of their 34 made field goals. Sallee highlighted the team’s assist numbers as a “barometer for their success,” so the floor general role is a responsibility that Norman does not take lightly.
“I think I’ve always been a kind of pass-first point guard,” Norman said. “That’s something (Sallee)’s trying to change in me — be more aggressive. I still take a lot of pride in making a good pass over making a good shot sometimes.”
Through three games, the Cardinals’ average of 17.33 assists per game ranks second in the MAC behind UMass, so the barometer currently looks good. However, they have also had to clean up their own turnovers after committing 35 in their season-opener at Arkansas State, where they still managed to pull out a 68-66 victory. In their two games since, the Cardinals have committed just 32 turnovers combined, so while the opener looks like it may have been an outlier, Sallee is hoping it stays that way.
“What I’ve seen so far out of this group in adversity has been a really good thing — that’s when you see the real in your group,” Sallee said. “When you have 35 turnovers and still stay together and win, you go on the road and face a ton of adversity and you find ways, I think that’s when you learn the most about your group.”
Ball State is coming off one of the most successful seasons in program history, which ended with MAC regular-season and tournament championships. Although this year’s team barely returns any of the production from that championship-winning roster, the players remain confident that they can put together another run and contend for the conference title. For Sallee, the progress they have shown him in practice has him feeling confident as well.
“There’s so much room for improvement,” Sallee said. “The ceiling — who knows where it can go? The last thing I’ll say is they’re starting to figure out how to practice. Just in my time, when my teams are good practice teams, we have really good years, and we’re starting to figure out how to practice.”
Ball State will hit the road again for its next game at Memphis (2-1) on Saturday, Nov. 15. The Cardinals’ next home game will be Thursday, Nov. 20, against Cincinnati (0-3).
Contact Cade Hampton via email at cbhampton@muncie.gannett.com or on X, formerly known as Twitter, @CadeHamp10.
This article originally appeared on Muncie Star Press: Ball State women’s basketball improves to 3-0 with win in home opener
