Muncie, Ind. - Ball State managed to hold Larry Bird to his average here Tuesday night.

Unfortunately for the host Cardinals, Indiana State's All-American pride and joy goes for 31 points an outing.
 
And with Larry hitting his norm, the Sycamores decked Steve Yoder's scrappy Ball State flock, 93-85, before a sellout crowd in the Men's Gym.

It was the seventh straight victory for Bill Hodges' 16th-ranked club and it was neither hard nor easy.

Indiana State turned on the power and pulled away every time BSU had notions of closing the gap.

The Cards had quite a few of those notions, too, but none were big enough to put much of a scare into the 7-0 visitors.

As a matter of fact, the final tally was the closest Ball State had been since midway through the first half.

And even though the 7,000-plus fans were screaming right until the end, there really wasn't that much to get excited about.

Because for all intents and purposes, ISU put this one away with a 5-minute flurry in that opening period. That was when the Sycamores went from a 16-16 deadlock to a 28-17 lead.

After a brief return from the Redbirds, the Sycamores reeled off eight more unanswered points and owned a 38-29 advantage when intermission finally came.
           
The second half began like the first one ended - ISU's Alex Gilbert hooped consecutive baskets before the Cards could recover and then the two clubs literally traded baskets for the last 18 minutes.

In the end, ISU became a little too lax, which enabled BSU to get so close after dropping behind by 15 on a number of occasions.

The Sycamores had their usual artillery smoking and got a pretty big charge from their bench as all eight participants scored.

The Bird, who opened the evening with back-to-back air balls, shook off a 5-of-14 first half and finished strong to nail 11 of 23 fielders and 9 of 10 freebies for his 31. He also got his rebound average - 14- and stabilized his helter-skelter teammates every time they began to vibrate.

The Slack from Bird's slow start was taken up by Carl Nicks (he had 8 of ISU's first 10 markers). Hodges' lightning-quick junior guard wound up with 20 points and 8 assists in a splendid all-around effort.

Steve Reed was perfect in the shooting department (4 of 4 field goals) and 2 of 2 free throws) for his 10 counters, while Leroy Staley notch 9, Brad Miley 8, Bob Heaton and Gilbert 6 apiece and Rich Nemcek chipped in 1.
 
Even though his troop netted 37 of 72 floor efforts (.514), Hodges wasn't too elated with their overall performance.