Most teams walk into a postgame press conference grinning ear to ear after a win that keeps their season alive.
Bradley didn’t.
Inside the interview room after Bradley’s 90-84 win over Valparaiso, the mood at the podium felt closer to the aftermath of a heartbreaking loss than a ticket punched to the Missouri Valley Conference (MVC) semifinals.
Graduate senior Alex Huibregtse, the oldest player on the team, sat with an autumn beard that somehow looked fuller than it did three hours earlier, as if the night had aged him another year.
Sophomore guard Jaquan Johnson — already one of the quieter players on the roster — spoke slightly softer and in a more sparing manner than usual.
Ahmet Jonovic relaxed in the chair between questions, eyes fixed somewhere past the cameras, his mind seemingly replaying the events of a double-overtime victory.
Braves head coach Brian Wardle quickly recapped the game before giving credit to the Beacons for a hard-fought battle.
There were few enough smiles to count on your hands: a smirk or two every few minutes.
The Braves had fought a war, and their faces showed it.
“Did you watch that game?” Wardle said with a sly smile, finally showing a small sign of happiness.
“We’re tired,” he continued. “We’re ready for some water, some stretching, some good food and sleep, and so I think we’ll celebrate in the locker room. We’ll be happy on the bus, trust me, but we are just exhausted. It was a double overtime game, and we’re happy we pulled it out, and now we prepare and get some rest, and be ready to play tomorrow.”
“Survive and advance.”
Bradley barely survived; they had to fight tooth and nail to get a win, with Jonovic literally knocking a tooth out of Beacons’ center Shon Tupuola’s mouth early on a layup attempt in the first overtime.
After his 18-point, 7-rebound, 4-assist, 2-block performance, he used one of his few opportunities to speak after the game to apologize.
“My bad, I didn’t want to hurt him.”
Though neither team was looking to hurt each other, the contest resembled a 1980s-style slugfest. Both defenses were extremely physical, combining for 49 fouls that led to 62 free throws. It was an ugly game for lovers of high-flying offense and beautiful for lovers of gritty defense. Bradley and Valparaiso combined to shoot 58-138 (42%) and 12-43 from behind the arc (28%).
“It’s a March game,” Wardle said. “We’ve had three wars with them. We knew what we were in for, and we found a way, and we made enough plays to win the game. So give Valpo a lot of credit. Roger is a good friend of mine. I got a lot of respect for the Valparaiso program in general. I’ve been battling him for 16 years as a head coach.”
“I thought they played really well,” Wardle continued. “They’re very physical. They know who they are, and they execute what they do very well. So we’re just happy to find a way to win. It’s survive in advance, and proud of these three guys and everybody who just kind of battled through a double-overtime game, and a lot of these guys’ first time playing in this arena and in this setting.”
In freshman point guard Montana Wheeler’s Arch Madness debut, he was up for the task, adding 15 points and two assists off the bench, giving Bradley’s offense a spark in regulation when they desperately needed it.
“He’s mature beyond his years,” Wardle said. “These moments aren’t too big for him. And I expect him to play well tomorrow, too. We need him too. I wish I could have found him more minutes, but we were playing big defensively because Valpo stayed big. We’ve got to get him in those right situations tomorrow to make plays, because he’s a dynamic player.”
The rest of Wheeler’s teammates took on the freshman’s moniker and made plays down the stretch. Under the pressure of the Arch Madness lights, the Braves were just that.
We’ve been here before
Bradley appeared primed to escape regulation with the win after Johnson put in a layup to push their lead to six with 1:09 to play. But the Beacons would not go down without throwing a punch of their own.
Brody Whitaker knocked down Valpo’s first three in six minutes with 57 seconds to play to make it a three-point game. Johnson couldn’t get a layup to fall on the ensuing possession, and as the Beacons drove down the court, guard Justus McNair was left wide open in the corner.
He drained it.
In the blink of an eye, the Braves’ lead had evaporated, their momentum gone, and they were forced to play their fifth overtime game this season.
Bradley could’ve crumbled. In fact, they did in their last overtime game against UIC on Feb. 24, allowing the Flames to outscore them 14-7 in the final period.
It seems they learned from putting their hand on the stove and getting burnt, and against Valparaiso, the Braves made the necessary plays to come out on top.
“You know, we’ve been in those moments before,” Huibregtse said. “We’ve had multiple overtime games this year, and you know, so we’ve been there. We got that experience.”
Down 73-70, Huibregtse flew off a dribble handoff, stepped back, and drained a game-tying three to send the game into a second overtime.
“You just trust the work that you put in,” Huibregtse said about his mentality on the game-tying shot. “That’s pretty much it, really. I get put in great positions to succeed, and I gotta hit those shots for the team.”
In the second overtime, both teams continued to battle. There were controversial calls, leading to multiple successful challenges and boos from each crowd.
Each side made clutch threes and highlight dunks, but the game was won on defense — courtesy of the MVC Defensive Player of the Year.
Johnson delivered the knockout blow, stealing the ball from Valparaiso’s Owen Dease and taking it back to the basket for the layup, capping off a 9-1 run, to give him just his fourth field goal of the game.
Despite an off-shooting night, Johnson made the play that dimmed the lights on the Beacons’ season.
“He hasn’t had many games this year like that,” Wardle said about Johnson shooting 5-19. “But you’re going to have them here and there. He’s put us on his back many times for wins, and his teammates have his back if he’s going to struggle a little bit. But he doesn’t get into his head. He stays in attack mode. He picked the right time to get in the gap and get a huge steal in the layup for us in a key moment.”
“But that’s what he is: a young man who makes winning plays and knows how to play big and big moments.”
