MUNCIE, Ind. (WISH) — The Ball State University women’s basketball team is having a historic season.

The Cardinals are getting ready to play in their first NCAA Tournament since 2009 after they won the MAC Tournament Championship Game last weekend against Toledo.

The No. 12-seeded Cardinals (27-7) face the No. 5-seeded Ole Miss Rebels (20-10) on Friday at 6 p.m. EDT in Waco, Tx.

A big reason for the Cardinals’ success this year is the play of senior guard Ally Becki.

“Just trying to soak everything in and just stay in the moment,” Becki said on Thursday. “Our president, he came to us a couple weeks ago, and he was just like, the one thing that I kind of wanted to tell you guys is just, like, stay in the moment with each other, and that’s kind of what I’ve been trying to do.

“This is our last time, so I only get this once, so I’m just trying to be grateful for all this and just be in the moment.”

Becki, a Brownsburg, Ind. native, is second on the team in scoring this season, averaging 13.9 points per game. She also leads the team in assists per game (6.3) and is third on the team in rebounds per game (5.5).

“We all know Ally had the chances to probably go a lot of places,” Ball State head coach Brady Sallee told News 8 Sports’ Andrew Chernoff. “So her legacy starts with her loyalty to Ball State University and our program, to me, to her teammates. And I think that’s the part of her leadership that isn’t talked about enough. She was a central figure in keeping this core group together so that we could go do what we did.”

Becki was the MAC Player of the Year and the MAC Tournament Most Valuable Player this season.

She is also Ball State’s career leader in assists (719) and is the only women’s basketball player in MAC history to have 1,600 career points, 700 career assists and 200 career three-pointers.

“The level of college career that she’s had – scoring, rebounding, assists, steals – it’s unheard of,” Sallee said.

Sallee said it’s not just her stats though that stand out to him. It’s that Becki does whatever she can to help the team win.

“That’s the part of her that I just love so much,” Sallee said. “It was never about her. It was always about how can we go cut down those nets.”

It didn’t take long for Becki to make a name for herself at the college level. She played over 30 minutes per game her freshman season. During that year, she averaged 11.1 points per game, 5.9 rebounds per game and 4.8 assists per game.

And now, four years later, her impact on the court continues.

In fact, she is now on an impressive list. She became the seventh player in women’s basketball history to have at least 1,600 points, 700 rebounds and 700 assists in her career. The other six players are:

• Caitlin Clark, Iowa (2021-24)
• Sabrina Ionescu, Oregon (2017-20)
• Dawn Staley, Virginia (1989-92)
• Niesa Johnson, Alabama (1992-95)
• Stacey Dales, Oklahoma (1998-02)
• Brittany Boyd, California (2012-15)

“You mention everybody down in Indy knows who Ally Becki is,” Sallee said. “I think everybody in the country right now is learning who Ally Becki is. And that’s the cool thing with what we get to do and the stage we get to play on.”

There is no question that Sallee believes Becki’s name will live on at Ball State for generations to come.

“I believe her jersey should hang in this arena,” Sallee said. “Not for a certain amount of points or a certain amount of wins, but the totality of what she’s meant to not just our program, but our whole department and our whole university. She’s that special and I don’t think many people will forget Ally Becki up here in Muncie and hopefully not anywhere around Indianapolis either.”