Monday, November 3
State University, AR
8 pm
Ball State University
1-0,0-0MAC
68
at
66
Arkansas State University
0-1,0-0Sun Belt
1
2
3
4
F
Ball St.
20
9
15
24
68
Arkansas St.
9
12
23
22
66
WBB Opens Season with Mid-Major Showdown Victory at Arkansas State
November 03, 2025 | Women's Basketball
Ball State improves to 4-1 in the MAC-SBC Challenge
JONESBORO, Ark. - The Ball State women's basketball team (1-0) opened the 2025-26 season with a 68-66 victory at Arkansas State (0-1) Monday night in First National Bank Arena.
The physicality of tonight's contest helped the Cardinals earn the win as BSU outrebounded the Red Wolves, 52-39.
Ball State placed three in double-digit scoring led by Grace Kingery with 15 while Karsyn Norman chipped in 14 points and Zhen Verburgt tallied 13. Defensively, the Cardinals were led by Bree Salenbien with 12 rebounds.
Salenbien and Kingery hit back-to-back shots to put the Cardinals up 5-0 in the opening minutes of the ball game. This new deck of Cards came out of the gates strong shooting 47 percent from the field (7-15) while pulling down 19 rebounds to take a 20-9 edge over the Red Wolves after the first quarter.
The second period was offensively slower for Ball State. A three-minute scoring drought was snapped after Verburgt hit a three-pointer to make the score 25-13 with just under six minutes left in the half. The Red Wolves continued to chomp at the heels of the Cardinals throughout the second 10 minutes of play. Although, the Red Wolves outpaced the Cardinals 12-9 in the second frame Ball State was able to hold onto a 29-21 lead over Arkansas State at intermission.
A driving layup from Norman to start the second half gave BSU the spark to string together an 11-6 run that gave the Cardinals a 13-point cushion (40-27) at the 6:23 mark. The run was capped off by a fast break layup from Alba Caballero.
Shortly after, Arkansas State answered with a 17-4 scoring spree of its own to end the third frame with a tie, 44-44.
The Red Wolves had built an 8-point advantage (52-44) over the Cardinals by the fourth quarter media timeout. Aniss Tagayi, Verburgt, Salenbien and Norman all contributed to the Cardinals coming back and knotting the score again 58-58 with 2:23 on the clock.
After that, both teams swapped blows the remainder of the final frame. But Ball State was able to go up 64-60 after a 3-pointer from Verburgt with 1:39 left to play. Norman closed out the contest with some crucial free throws that would inevitably seal tonight's victory for Ball State.
The Ball State women's basketball team continues play on the road when it travels to in-state rival IU Indy Sunday for a 1 pm ET tipoff in The Jungle.
Team Stats
BSU
ASU
FG%
.447
.306
3FG%
.318
.138
FT%
.679
.514
RB
52
39
TO
35
15
STL
8
16
Game Leaders
Pts
15
FGM
6
3FGM
3
FTM
0
Pts
14
FGM
3
3FGM
1
FTM
7
Pts
13
FGM
4
3FGM
2
FTM
3
Pts
8
FGM
2
3FGM
0
FTM
4
Players Mentioned
/ Women's Basketball
/ Women's Basketball
/ Women's Basketball
/ Women's Basketball
/ Women's Basketball
/ Women's Basketball
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