Bradley 74, Indiana State 71.
That’s what the scoreboard read with 1.6 seconds to play at the Hulman Center in Terre Haute.
Senior forward AJ Smith had just made his first of two free throw attempts, which would seal a Braves victory in their Missouri Valley Conference opener. All they needed was for Smith to hit his second shot.
The Sycamore faithful inside the arena screamed to the top of their lungs in an effort to distract Smith from icing the game.
He took three hard dribbles, bent his knees and held his follow-through as he prepared to put the dagger in Indiana State’s heart.
He missed.
The shot rimmed out, the ball fell to Sycamore’s center, Derek Vorst and coach Mark Slessinger called his final timeout with 1.3 seconds on the clock.
Indiana State had one last chance to get the game to overtime, but they’d have to convert a full-court heave.
Bradley head coach Brian Wardle had junior seven-foot center Ahmet Jonovic guard the inbounder and everyone else on the far end of the court to intercept a potential full-court pass.
But the Sycamores didn’t throw the ball the length of the court.
Senior forward Ian Scott ran the baseline and passed to junior Jo Van Buggenhout, who was 70 feet from the rim.
He took one dribble, launched a prayer and it banked in.
The Indiana State faithful erupted into cheers. The Sycamores’ bench emptied in celebration.
Bradley players stood paralyzed with disbelief.
The Braves had battled through adversity all game — their first conference win at their fingertips, but just as quickly, they had it snatched away from them.
“My top thought was like, wow, he hit it from really far back,” freshman guard Montana Wheeler said. “He [Wardle] just told us to stay together. Obviously, there were a lot of distractions going on; obviously, the crowd was going crazy, but in the huddle, we were just preaching to stay together.”
Now, with the momentum swinging in the Sycamores’ favor and thousands of fans rooting against them, they had to be Brave again.
“These are the moments we’ve been practicing for,” Wheeler continued. “We put in a lot of time and pain with each other. When we get in these moments like this, it’s nothing, because we all trust each other.”
Third times a charm
Things got worse before they got better.
Jonovic fouled out just 30 seconds into the period. Indiana State wasted no time capitalizing, with Camp Wagner’s three-point make opening up a four-point advantage with 3:28 to play in overtime.
Someone needed to put a spark in the Braves’ offense if they wanted any chance at overcoming the Sycamores.
That spark came in the form of graduate-senior Alex Huibregtse.
In his first taste of Valley action after transferring from Wright State this offseason, Huibregtse scored 11 points in the first five minutes of the contest to help Bradley jump out to a 17-4 lead.
Since then, Huibregtse had been silenced. But if the Braves wanted to win, they needed the veteran to deliver.
With 1:02 left on the clock, Huibregtse drained a crucial three, the first beyond the arc for Bradley in over seven minutes to give the Braves an 81-80 lead.
“I needed to be more aggressive,” Huibregtse said. “I just wasn’t as aggressive after I had that quick start. I knew at the end when guys were fouling out and the team needed me to get back aggressive. I know shots are going to fall so I’m not too worried about that.”
After the two sides traded points, the Sycamores nearly walked it off as Wagner drove to the rim, but a clutch defensive effort from Corey Thomas forced an errant shot and sent the game to double overtime.
The second overtime had everything a basketball fan can dream of: clutch shots, big defensive stops and even a few controversial calls.
Most notably, sophomore guard Jaquan Johnson, who led the Braves with 20 points and four assists, fouled out with two minutes to play after an opponent tripped over his feet.
With Johnson out, the Braves again needed someone to step up.
This time, it was Wheeler.
With 26.4 seconds to play, Wheeler came off a ball screen, launched a contested three and drained it.
“I was on the baseline, and all I heard was the coach telling me to shoot,” Wheeler said. “When the coach tells you to shoot it, that’s the ultimate confidence, the ultimate green light. And I let it go, and I made it.”
Bradley now led 92-91, with 17 seconds to play, needing just one stop to seal a win and head back to Peoria with a victory.
After a timeout, Indiana State began to run a play to take the lead and seal the game, but before they could, Scott and Braves forward Timoty Van Der Knaaap collided, sending Scott to the free throw line to potentially take a one-point lead.
Scott split a pair at the line, allowing Bradley to play for the last shot. Wardle again called on Wheeler to deliver a game-defining basket, but this time, his three-point jumper clanked off the rim, and the game headed to a third overtime.
Tied at 92, with the fouls piling up on both sides, the game would come down to who could make the most plays down the stretch, and the Braves leaned on Van Der Knaap, who’d previously committed a costly foul to extend the game.
“I really got after Timo [Van Der Knaap] in one of the overtimes because he kept making the same mistake on this one play, and this one play that we went over,” Wardle said. “He responded, looked me in the eye and said, ‘I got you, coach’.”
The Italian stepped up in the third and final period of overtime, draining a three-pointer within seconds of the inbound and finishing with seven points in the period.
“Coach challenged me, I messed up some defense in the second overtime so I had to respond,” van der Knaap said.
Van der Knaap’s response was the catalyst for a period in which the Braves outscored the Sycamores by nine and left Terre Haute with a hard-fought 108-99 victory, their fifth straight to move them to 8-4 and begin conference play undefeated.
They grow up so fast
The win may not be season-defining, but it is a testament to Bradley’s growth this year. The Braves started their campaign 1-3, and all three losses were at the hands of formidable opponents. In those games, Bradley kept it close throughout, but couldn’t play well enough down the stretch to come away with victories.
The Sycamores took the Braves to the brink — it was the second-longest game in Bradley’s history and the longest game the team had ever won.
One could say the triple-overtime battle aged them, and Wardle saw his team grow up in real time.
“We’ve lost a lot of these close ones early in the year, so it’s good to win close games and build some confidence,” Wardle said. “I’m really proud of the team. I thought the guys handled themselves very well and kept their cool, and we kind of grew up a bit in this game. I hope we can build off of it, because I saw some maturity and some confidence kick in with guys, even though things weren’t going their way.”
Though the game was the first taste of MVC play for many, the team is already getting an idea of what it takes to reach the top of the Valley.
“We knew that the Valley is a tough league,” Huibregtse said. “There’s no off-nights, and so we had that mentality all week. We kinda got slapped in the face with it today. You have to learn through experience a little bit, but this was great to set the tone for us this conference season.
Things aren’t getting easier anytime soon. The Braves’ next test will be at home, Sunday at 1 p.m. against the Southern Illinois Salukis.
Hopefully, Bradley can get the job done in regulation.
“I will be retiring at a young age if we keep playing games this long,” Wardle joked. “I know my guys are exhausted. I’m exhausted. Indiana State is exhausted. Their coaches are. They played a heck of a game. It was just a really cool, good basketball game.”
