Bradley men’s basketball (18-6, 9-4 MVC) came up short at home versus Belmont (16-8, 8-5), dropping their third straight game 80-77.
After their 9-1 start in Missouri Valley Conference play, the Braves have lost to UIC, Northern Iowa and Belmont. All three are good teams in the conference, which shows how difficult this league can be.
“We got to go all look [at] ourselves and soul search in the mirror tonight,” head coach Brian Wardle said. “No one’s feeling sorry for us. It is a ‘nobody cares, work harder’ mentality.”
Belmont certainly didn’t feel sorry for walking into Carver Arena and taking the game from the Braves. The Bruins led for over 35 of the 40 total minutes in the game. Bradley only held the lead for two minutes and 41 seconds, all of which came at different points in the second half.
Three-point shooting
This game featured two of the MVC’s top teams in three-point percentage. Bradley entered the night with the conference’s best percentage at 39.8%, and Belmont was fourth with their 37.5% rate.
Both squads proved their marksmanship and aggressiveness from behind the arch. Belmont started the game seven-for-12 from deep and finished 15-for-32. Their leader was Tyler Lundblade, who made eight of those 15 threes and finished with 25 points.
“They shot the daylights out of the ball,” Wardle said. “[Lundblade] was unconscious. We did not guard the three-point line well in the first half.”
“We knew they were a good three-point shooting team,” Wardle added. “We knew who their shooters were. We watched a ton of film on it. We worked on it in practice, we talked about it and we just ran into screens today and stopped, and that’s unacceptable.”
Bradley kept up with Belmont’s three-point shooting in the first half, as they converted on eight of their 13 attempts. The Braves finished 14-for-29 and shot 48.3% as a team. Sophomore forward Almar Atlason had the hot hand for the Braves as he shot six-for-nine from long range.
“I’m confident in my shot no matter if it’s been going in or not lately,” Atlason said. “But there are other things we need to fix that are more important than making shots.”
Atlason had nine points in the first half and then exploded for 19 in the second half on his way to a career-high 28 points. Each shot in the second half came at big moments when the Braves needed the basket. He scored eight straight points in the final minute to tie this game.
“It’s a great game by Almar. He carried us in the second half at times,” Wardle said. “Almar was great, but we need more from our seniors in their minutes.”
Senior search
A big attribute Bradley had over most teams in the Valley during the preseason was the amount of seniors and experienced veterans returning to the Hilltop. One could argue it was a key element when they were picked as the preseason favorites in the MVC.
Seniors Duke Deen, Darius Hannah, Zek Montgomery and Christian Davis were all part of the 2022-23 team that won the regular season conference championship. They knew what it took to win the Valley, but they’re not playing like it.
“I’m very surprised that I have older players in February, at this time of the year, struggling,” Wardle said. “Two games, okay. Three games now I’m starting to worry a little bit.”
The aforementioned quartet combined for just nine points in the loss at Northern Iowa. They were much better scoring-wise against Belmont; however, they were responsible for nine of the team’s 17 turnovers.
Hannah reached his 1,000th career point after a dunk in the second half with 11:19 to play but didn’t score for the rest of the game. Deen scored eight points in the first half while shooting an efficient three-for-five from the field, but only scored three points in the second half.
The cure for this might just be a confidence boost to find better consistency.
“Everything we have in that locker room is all we need, but right now we’re not individually consistent at all in how we’re playing,” Wardle said. “The greatest gift you can give someone is consistency every day.”
“No one can give you confidence but yourself,” Wardle added. “I can help maybe for a spurt of confidence as a coach, but that moment is going to go quick, and you got to have confidence internally. And we got to go find that swagger and find that confidence.”
Braves had their chance
In a game where Bradley was behind for the majority of the matchup, the Braves showed fight and never folded up shop. Their first lead came four minutes into the second half from a Hannah layup. Not even a minute later, freshman guard Jaquan Johnson grabbed the lead again after a three-point make, which gave the Braves a 50-48 advantage.
“I always believe we’re gonna pull it off, I had faith in us coming back,” Atlason said. “But we shouldn’t have to come back. We can’t let a guy make a three, we can’t turn the ball over 17 times and then we have to make a comeback.”
At 9:22, Bradley had their biggest lead of the game when it was 61-58 after two free-throws from Davis. The Bruins proceeded to go on a 14-4 run to take the 72-65 advantage with under four minutes left to play.
After Brody Peebles’ and-one conversion gave the Bruins a 77-69 lead with 1:23 on the clock, Atlason carried the Braves with eight consecutive points with two three-pointers and an offensive rebound that led to the game-tying basket with 6.5 seconds left.
Carter Whitt then brought the basketball up the court and passed the ball to Jonathan Pierre, who drove directly to the basket and got the and-one basket with just 2.1 seconds remaining. It took the breath out of the arena after the thrilling comeback.
But the Braves still had time. The initial full-court pass ricocheted off a Bruin defender and allowed Bradley to inbound the ball on their side of the court with 1.3 seconds for a high-percentage shot.
Unfortunately, the Bruins defended the play well and forced Hannah into a deep, contested shot from the Peoria Civic Center logo, which fell short at the buzzer.
“We were hoping we’ll get a slip, just try to confuse them,” Wardle said about the final play. “We knew they were going to switch and guard the three-point line. We tried to just run intersecting cuts on a play that’s worked for us before, and unfortunately, it didn’t work out, but we didn’t really execute it perfectly at the end either, so that was disappointing.”
Bradley will be able to regroup on Saturday night when they travel to Evansville. The Purple Aces have had an up-and-down season, with a 9-15 overall record and a 6-7 mark in conference play.
“I still believe in us and I hope everyone does,” Atlason said. “But if not, then we believe in ourselves, and we have to do so.”
