Bash - alternative for: ls | grep

I use the following code as variable in a script:

match=$( ls | grep -i "$search")

this is then used in an if statement:

if [ "$match" ]; then
    echo "matches found"
else
    echo "no matches found"
fi

what would be an alternative if I did not want to use find? ShellCheck recommends:

ls /directory/target_file_pattern

but I do not get the syntax right to get the same result. also I want no output when there are no matches for the if statement to work.