Foul trouble, injuries and unknowns could be issues down the road. For now, this would appear to be a team with a chance to be pretty good.

The Hawks, playing just their second game in 2 weeks and first at home this season, could never knock out undermanned, but scrappy and very well-coached Ball State last night at the Fieldhouse. They just sort of eased away from the Cardinals late and won, 74-63.

"We're not there today," Hawks coach Phil Martelli said of a team he clearly likes. "That's why it's still November, but I'm anxious about going forward with this group."

The Hawks (3-1) led, 13-2. Ball State (0-5) got within two. The Hawks led by nine. The Cardinals came back to take a one-point lead. St. Joe's led by 13 early in the second half. Ball State rushed back to trail, 48-45.

Then, Darrin Govens came off the bench firing. He nailed four treys in nine Hawks possessions. The lead quickly became a dozen and Ball State, playing without its leading scorer and playing with a short bench, finally hit the wall.

Martelli said Govens is not a point guard, but a shooting guard in a point guard's body. Govens had a different opinion.

"That's not true," Govens said. "I could do both."

The coach did allow that Govens and Tasheed Carr have a chance to be a terrific pair.

And Govens can really shoot. His stroke is pure. And when he got hot, he stayed hot.

"I felt like every shot was going in unless I got a terrible release on it," Govens said. "Other than that, I felt like they were all going down."

The Hawks' starters outscored Ball State's, 71-37. Pat Calathes had a game-high 19 points. Govens and that post presence, Ahmad Nivins, each had 15. Carr had 13 points. In four games, the point guard has 31 assists against 10 turnovers. Rob Ferguson had nine points and nine rebounds.

The bench, however, was outscored 26-3.

"The balance that we're looking for was there with four double-figure scorers," Martelli said. "It's got to be on me to figure out a way to get more out of the bench."

St. Joe's won the game from the two lines, shooting 12-for-26 from the arc and 16-for-20 from the foul line, outscoring the Cardinals, 52-27, from the lines. The Hawks really shared the ball, getting 17 assists on 23 field goals.

"In my opinion, if we really play like we can play, as the season goes on, I think we are going to be really hard to stop," Calathes said. "I even think we can be Top 25. Talent-wise, we have it."

Ball State really should have had no chance. The Cardinals just didn't play like it. Coach Billy Taylor, the former Notre Dame player and Lehigh coach, got the job in August, following an internal mess at the school that resulted in the resignation of Ronny Thompson, John Thompson's other coaching son.

Two of their losses were to Butler and Georgetown. The other two could have been wins. This is an undersized team that is overachieving. They had just seven turnovers against the Hawks.

"Everybody in the country is going to lose to Butler and Georgetown," Martelli said.

Ball State did get to the basket without a lot of difficulty.

"I was not overly enthralled with our defense," Martelli said.

The offense was better than the defense. The Hawks shot 50 percent, 54.5 percent in the second half.

Life gets more complicated tomorrow when Gonzaga comes to Hawk Hill to continue one of the best series in college hoops.

"It will be the hardest ticket on Hawk Hill," Martelli said. "It's a harder ticket than Jameer's last game."

If they all get in, there will be 20 NBA scouts there to see it. And we will know much more about these Hawks when the game is done. *