As Bradley sophomore Jaquan Johnson bent his knees, stood on the balls of his toes and held his follow-through, he knocked down a free-throw to put Bradley up 94-90 with 3.6 seconds left in overtime.
The bucket meant a bevy of things.
He iced the game to give the Braves their third consecutive win, scored a career-high 35 points and tied for the third-most points in a single game in the program’s history.
The last time a Bradley player scored 35 points was February 21st, 2024, when Duke Deen set the program record for most three-pointers in a game to lead the Braves to a blowout win over Missouri State.
Deen and Johnson played together for one year last season, and Johnson has cited him as someone he looked up to and learned from.
Before Deen graduated, he warned us that performances like this would be coming.
“Taquat’s my youngin,” Deen said during a practice last season. “When we watched his film in the offseason, I knew he was going to come in and impact right away. I just try to keep him confident. I don’t try to change anything about him because he has a great game. He’s very receptive. He wants to learn. He wants to get better, and we’re always in the gym together.”
“It’s crazy because he’s not even showing his full bag,” Deen added. “He has a lot more in the tank. I’m not going to say anything because I don’t want to get him scouted early, but I know what he can do. I feel like everyone in this program knows what he can do. It’s going to be on him to keep working on it. I feel like the sky is the limit. He’s going to be a problem.”
Johnson gave the Purple Aces all kinds of problems they had no answer to.
In addition to scoring 35 points, he grabbed five rebounds, dished out seven assists and nabbed six steals. In the win, he became the first player in NCAA history to achieve those numbers without turning the ball over once.
It was a truly historic performance and the Braves needed every single bit of it.
“I mean, it feels great,” Johnson remarked about his career night. “I really didn’t know I had all those stats, but I just tried to go out there and do my best to get the win.”
Deja Vu
Evansville came into the contest with a 4-12 record and just one win in Missouri Valley Conference (MVC) play. Still, its record on its face isn’t indicative of how competitive the Purple Aces have been this season.
“This is Evansville,” head coach Brian Wardle said. “They play everyone really well. I’ve watched all of their games. A few of their losses have come down to two or three possessions, so we knew we were in for a dogfight.”
The last time Evansville played Bradley, the Purple Aces started the game on a 13-0 run before the Braves came back.
In round two, it was more of the same — Evansville began the game throwing haymakers and Bradley was forced to counter punch.
After the Braves started the game with a 6-2 lead, the Purple Aces caught fire, responding with a 23-7 run to take a 25-13 lead midway through the first half. Evansville used a ton of movement, screening actions and crisp ball movement to free up open shots at the rim and from three.
Bradley’s defenders struggled to get through ball screens, often finding themselves trailing ball-handlers and putting the Braves’ big men in two-on-one situations. Bradley lacked energy. They didn’t pressure the ball or communicate whether they were hedging or switching well, and the Purple Aces made them pay.
“We didn’t get through screens very well,” Wardle said. “We didn’t execute the game plan in going over screens. We ran into too many screens and stopped. Our communications have to be much better. We have to talk. We lost the shooters, and then, honestly, free throws hurt us.”
The Braves combined defensive inconsistency with stagnant offense. On too many possessions, they didn’t execute offensive sets, didn’t move the ball and settled for low percentage jump shots.
Bradley shot three-for-14 in the nine minutes since its lead to begin the game and trailed by 13 at the second media timeout.
The Braves were in danger of a major upset and washing away the momentum they’d built with their previous two wins against Drake and Northern Iowa.
But, like he’s done many times this season, Johnson, in the face of adversity, rose to the occasion and brought Bradley back into the game.
Bully comes to collect
Johnson’s run started like they have many times this season — with stealing the opponent’s lunch money.
The guard stole the ball from Evansville forward James Dyson-Merwe and raced down the floor to finish a layup in transition. After a layup from freshman guard Montana Wheeler, Johnson stole the ball again and then found Wheeler for a three to cut the deficit to ten. Down the stretch of the first half, Wheeler and Johnson traded buckets on offense and injected newfound life into Bradley’s defense with their ball pressure.
By halftime, the Braves had cut their deficit to seven, trailing 36-29 at the break.
Johnson continued to make plays when the action resumed, relentlessly attacking the rim and getting to the foul line. His rim pressure collapsed the defense and he found his teammates for open shots.
Johnson’s increased intensity carried over to the team and ignited a 24-9 run, during which he scored or assisted on 17 points.
“You can see it in his eyes,” Wardle said about Johnson’s takeover. “You can see it in his pace of play. His defense usually ignites it. It’s the steals. He gets the steals and gets himself going out in transition. And we know we just kept keeping the ball in his hands and ran specific actions to get the ball to him in his strong hand and put him in positions to. And then he just made plays.”
Unsung heroes
The MVC’s leading scorer could not be stopped down the stretch of the game, but was not without help.
When Evansville scored eight unanswered points in overtime and took an 87-85 lead with 2:04 to play, it was Wheeler and senior center Ahmet Jonovic who stepped up to the plate.
Jonovic made a contested layup to tie the game at 87, and then Wheeler calmly swished in a mid-range jumper to take a two-point lead.
On the ensuing possession, Wheeler drove to the rim, drew a foul and knocked down two free throws to give Bradley a four-point lead that they never relinquished.
In the background of Johnson’s historic day, Jonovic finished with 15 points, 12 rebounds and three blocks, and Wheeler scored 17 points and added four assists.
“I thought Montana was tremendous in overtime for us,” Wardle said. “Especially when guys are a little tired and fatigued, he comes in with a lot of energy. And I told this to the team, Meta’s double-double was huge and he was playing a little hurt.”
The victory was Bradley’s second overtime win this season on the road and their fifth game in 13 days. They displayed a level of mental toughness that’s rarely seen in a team relying on this many underclassmen.
“I’m so proud of our group,” Wardle said. “We’ve won ugly this year. This is another one. We were resilient. We just keep coming back and keep coming back. That’s impressive, especially with our youth, playing some freshmen and sophomores a lot of minutes. We need a day off tomorrow, so hopefully they can recover, and we can rest. We got another big one coming up on Saturday.”
