The parity that hangs over the Mid-American Conference is talked about often.

Whether it's predicted blowouts coming down to the finish or lower tier teams out performing the betters ones, it's made the excitement of league play heighten, especially with the regular-season coming to a close this weekend.

Ands as Tuesday marked the second-to-final game for Central Michigan, it's what they did against Ball State that has confidence booming with days before the tournament in Cleveland.

Defense was the key in CMU's 75-51 win, forcing 16 turnovers and not allowing the Cardinals to shoot over 20 field goals, who entered McGuirk Arena the winners of five of their last six games.

"We don't take this win lightly," CMU head coach Keno Davis said. "We knew we were going to have our hands full defensively in order to match what they can do. We took a couple days off after Toledo to become fresh during this last stretch and I thought the energy we brought in 40 minutes was a good as it's been a while."

Central Michigan couldn't have asked for a better start in the first half, dropping four consecutive 3-pointers to get the early 12-7 lead, eventually going 50 percent (6-12) from beyond the arc before the second media timeout.

DiLeo went 3-of-4 during that nine-minute stretch, impressing everyone with his crossover dribbling before recorded his third field goal. The sophomore forward recorded 12 points and six rebounds.

"In the warmups I was feeling good," DiLeo said. "When I saw the first one go down and they left me in transition, I thought why not let it go? I just had all the confidence in my shot, knowing that they'd go down."

Early playing time was given to backup big man Inncocent Nwoko, checking in for Luke Meyer, who allowed Ball State to score eight points in the paint. During his one minute of play, Nwoko grabbed both an offensive and defensive rebound.

CMU had a 27-22 lead coming out of the final media timeout partially thanks to Ball State's mishandling of the basketball. Coughing up eight total turnovers at the 3:47 mark, it resulted in six points for the Chippewas.

Despite sinking back-to-back triples coming out of the timeout, the Cardinals couldn't regain the lead, as Kevin McKay made it a five-point difference after making two free throws.

Along with DiLeo, the sophomore guard was the only CMU player to be in double figures entering the second half. McKay finished with 23 points and seven rebounds.

Three more boards would have been the sophomore's fourth double-double in six games. During that span, he has set single-game career highs in points (33), rebounds (16) and assists (seven).

"We come out and try to be energetic as possible," McKay said. "Today, if you're hitting shots and your 3's are falling, that kind of helps you get into your instincts more, and it showed tonight."

Shawn Roundtree got things going in the second half, drawing the foul and layup to complete the 3-point play. It was the start of an 8-0 run for Central Michigan, who had a double-digit lead for two minutes, beginning with Cecil Williams' second made triple of the game.

It became a 14-point advantage for the Chippewas after McKay got the foul and basket off second-team All-MAC selectee Taylor Persons. Ball State had just one player record double-digit points in Thjai Teague.

Josh Kozinski later recorded his first 3-point field goal at the top of the key, following that up with a corner try to give CMU its largest lead of the game at 21, who went from the field and from beyond the arc.

"Our guys are such great individuals that when we were losing, there wasn't the finger pointing," Davis said. "They weren't hanging their heads, they were coming to practice, they were coming to work. I think going through some of those close losses has improved our team."

Kozinski needs 10 more to become the first player in CMU history to reach the 300 threshold. The fifth-year guard also ranks second in the nation in turnover percentage (3.9) second among all NCAA players in the last decade in that same category (2.86).

Central Michigan will conclude the 2017-18 season Friday at home against Western Michigan at 7 p.m. It'll be a rematch from the Feb. 20 overtime clash in Kalamazoo.