Press "Enter" to skip to content

Braves start 0-2 for first time under Ford

Junior Warren Jones scored 24 points for the Braves in their loss to Robert Morris Wednesday night. The Braves are 0-2 on the season and will try for their first win on Sunday vs. North Carolina A&T. Photo by Garth Shanklin.
Junior Warren Jones scored 24 points for the Braves in their loss to Robert Morris Wednesday night. The Braves are 0-2 on the season and will try for their first win on Sunday vs. North Carolina A&T. Photo by Garth Shanklin.

After falling 86-75 to Texas-Arlington on Nov. 14, the Bradley men’s basketball team was searching for their first win of the season against Robert Morris University (PA.) on Wednesday night.

To start the game, the Braves held a 15-point lead against RMU with 5:48 left to play in the first half. After that point in the game, the Braves lead vanished and found themselves down at halftime, 30-28.

The Braves eventually fell 68-61 to the Colonials. Now head coach Geno Ford and his team are faced with a 0-2 record to start the season for the first time since the 1995-1996 season. However those were both road losses. Ironically, the ‘95-’96 team ended up with a 22-8 final record.

The last time the Braves faced a 0-2 start after two straight home games was in the 1954-1955 season.

Unfortunately, missed layups, turnovers, missed free throws and the Braves’ inability to convert down low is not a recipe for a team to end up 22-8 for the season.

The Braves were out-rebounded for the second straight night, this time 41-32 by the Colonials, Ford said that his team needs to exhibit a deeper type of toughness in order to get in the win column this season.

“Our new guys have to learn the intensity you have to compete with,” Ford said. “It’ll be really good for the new guys in the long run playing extra minutes. In the short run, it’s really hurting us.”

Led by 26 points by Rodney Pryor, and 17 points from Lucky Jones, RMU carved through the Bradley defense to shoot 50 percent (9-18) from the three-point line and 41 percent (18-44) from the field.

As for Braves, the only bright spot may have been junior transfer Warren Jones, who scored 24 points and added seven rebounds in 33 minutes of play. Junior Ka’Darryl Bell added 12 points for the Braves.

Jones said it is a tough atmosphere currently in the Bradley locker room, but he and his teammates have to brush aside the recent games to make sure they are playing the way Ford and the coaching staff taught them.

“It’s a bad feeling,” said Jones. “We keep losing, but we can’t keep our heads down. We just have to go to the next one and keep playing hard. We had better effort than any [other] game, so we just have to keep playing hard.”

The Braves will try and regroup on Sunday against North Carolina A&T at 4 p.m. After that, the team finishes off their opening homestand against Texas A&M- Corpus Christi before traveling to participate in the Corpus Christi Coastal Classic from Nov. 28-29.

Copyright © 2023, The Scout, Bradley University. All rights reserved.
The Scout is published by members of the student body of Bradley University. Opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect those of the University.