Ball State’s Patrick Jackson knew Chick Evans Field House was a shooter’s gym.

He was able to reel off 26 points on 9-of-12 from the field and 4-of-6 from 3-point land in the Cardinals’ 83-70 win over the Huskies on Saturday. The Cardinal guard called the field house “a high school gym” because of the way it’s set up.

“This is a great shooting gym,” he said. “We got into a flow and hit some shots, and they happened to fall.”

Ball State (13-10 overall, 8-6 Mid-American Conference) hit 61.9 percent of its 3-pointers, going 13-for-21. The Huskies have allowed 162 from behind the arc on 416 attempts, good for a 38.9 percent.

“Going into the game, our focus was to make them take the outside shot,” said NIU interim coach Andy Greer. “They did shoot it from the outside, unfortunately, and did extremely well. That was a big factor in the ball game. Our plan backfired.”

Despite the 3-point shooting from Jackson and Rob Robbins, who went 4-of-5 from 3-point land, the Huskies took a 5-point lead in the first half.But the Cardinals went on a 12-3 run to end the first half, leading 37-27 into half-time. The Cardinals’ biggest lead was at 19.

At the 7-minute mark of the first half, Huskie Mike Brown hit a 3-pointer to give him 1,001 career points. The senior guard finished the game with 17 points, for a grand total of 1,009. Only 20 other Huskie players have hit the 1,000-point plateau.

“I didn’t know how many points I had,” Brown said. “It just crept up to me. It was nice. Anytime we break a milestone in front of former players, it’s nice.”

After losing to Ball State, the Huskies shoulder an eight-game losing streak. They have gone 3-13 since Greer took over the head coaching job Dec. 6.

Coaching the team has not met Greer’s expectations.

“We struggled early and I am disappointed,” he said. “I think we are all disappointed. I don’t think I would have expected this. It’s been a long season.”

Greer said he noticed a difference from two weeks ago, when the Huskies showed no emotion after losing a heartbreaker to Central Michigan.The Huskies had three games in five days and lost by at least 20 points in the two games after Central Michigan.

“We’ve played a lot harder today than the last couple of games,” Greer said. “The couple of games after Central Michigan, we just didn’t compete. I think we bounced out of that. For the most part here, we were competitive. I am happy we have bounced back a little bit.”