The story of the night inside the George Gervin GameAbove Center was the battle of the Jihad brothers as Eastern Michigan University's Yusuf Jihad (Farmington Hills, Mich.) went toe-to-toe with his younger brother from Ball State, Basheer Jihad (Detroit, Mich.). The Eagles would ultimately fall to the Cardinals, 76-72, and have now dropped their last three games.
Leading EMU with 21 points, Tyson Acuff (Detroit, Mich.) surpassed 1,000 career points as he currently sits at 1,015 points.
Ball State was 26-of-52 (50.0%) from the field and 7-of-19 (36.8%) from deep, while Eastern Michigan was 23-of-57 (40.4%) from the floor and 4-of-17 (23.5%) from three-point range.
Before Ball State established a 32-26 lead, the teams swapped leads for most of the first half. To cut the lead to three points at the half, Jihad hit a long triple for the Eagles.
An Acuff lay-up early in the second half put EMU ahead 39–38. Ball State then ran up to a 15–5 lead, which allowed the Cardinals to extend their lead to as much as 12 points before the game ended.
Playing the full 40 minutes, Acuff achieved this feat for the third time this season, completing the entire game. Acuff notched his 17th career game with 20 or more points.
Jalin Billingsley (Cleveland, Ohio) equaled his season best of 11 points and his career high of eight rebounds. On Dec. 1, against Lake Superior State, he scored 11 points.
The Eagles and Cardinals met for the 116th time during the game. Ball State is up in the series 45–71 in favor of EMU.
Next up, The Eagles are scheduled to travel to Ohio University in a 4 p.m. tip on Saturday, Jan. 20, as the game is preceded by the EMU women's basketball taking on OU at 1 p.m.
