Using a dominant performance from its big men, Bradley extended its win streak to a season-high four games, defeating Indiana State 67-52 in wire-to-wire fashion on Sunday afternoon at Carver Arena. The win moves the Braves to 6-4 in conference play and 12-10 overall.
While the final score was convincing, Bradley head coach Brian Wardle was far from thrilled with his team’s performance.
“We’ll take the win, and we’ll learn and we’ve gotta play better,” Wardle said. “But there’s nothing better than learning after a win. I think maybe earlier in the year, we lose this game, the way we were playing offensively with the turnovers and shot selection.”
The Braves were led by two double-doubles: an 18-point, 14-rebound effort from sophomore Rienk Mast and a 15-point, 10-rebound performance from junior Malevy Leons.
The forwards helped crush the Sycamores down low, as Bradley outrebounded the visitors 45-29 and outscored them 38-24 in the lane.
“I thought Malevy and Rienk were huge, they played great,” Wardle said. “They carried us the majority of the game, made big plays at big times.”
Bradley surged to start the contest, opening up a 10-3 lead in the first three and a half minutes, highlighted by a two-handed slam dunk by Terry Roberts.
The Sycamores, playing without their second leading scorer Cooper Neese for the third straight game, recovered from the slow start to trim the deficit back down to 14-13 at the 13:07 mark. Bradley was able to snatch the momentum back with a 10-4 stretch, highlighted by 3-pointers from graduate guard Mikey Howell and junior guard Ville Tahvanainen.
The Sycamores would respond once more to cut the lead down to three points with 4:10 remaining in the half, but Bradley used an 8-0 run to finish a see-saw first half ahead 34-23.
Mast led all scorers with 12 points at the break, eight of which came via hook shots from point-blank range.
“I also like to shoot it a little bit, but today was more my game inside three feet,” Mast said. “If you ask all the guys, you can always see me before practice every day working on that little bunny hook before I start doing anything else.”
The Braves held their double-digit advantage throughout the half, and pushed the lead to as high as 19 with a Roberts layup with 13:39 left in the contest.
The Sycamores once again did their best to string together runs, rattling off a 9-0 stretch following Roberts’ layup to cut the lead to 47-37. Following a timeout, Mast and Leons teamed for an 8-0 to bring the lead back to 18 with six and a half minutes remaining.
Indiana State had one more surge in them, however. With the Braves leading 57-41 with 4:47 remaining, senior Ari Boya fouled Sycamore guard Xavier Bledson on a layup attempt, sending Bledson to the ground. Following the play, Boya took a step toward Bledson and the two exchanged words, resulting in the players having to be separated.
Boya was called for a technical foul, and after a delay, Bledson made all four of his free throws to bring the lead down to 12. On the ensuing possession, Kailex Stephens connected on a mid-range jumper, which brought Bradley’s lead to 10 with 4:18 to go.
Two possessions later, Leons drained his only 3-pointer of the game, which pushed the lead back to 13 and put the game out of question for Bradley.
According to Wardle, the crowd of 4,554 helped propel the Braves to putting the game out of reach after the technical foul.
“There was a two minute stretch after that technical where our crowd got loud and got into it and helped us get some more stops,” Wardle said. “You never wanted [the lead] to get to eight, or seven, and we didn’t let that happen.”
The win avenges Bradley’s Jan. 2 loss in Terre Haute, when the Braves lost to a shorthanded Sycamores squad 76-71. The victory also marks Bradley’s first four game win streak since the 2019-2020 campaign, when the Braves won four games from Feb. 9 through Feb. 19.
“There was a burning sensation to get revenge … we still had a bad taste in our mouths from our last game [against Indiana State],” Leons said. “We keep getting hungrier. Since the winning streak, more guys keep coming in the gym and keep watching film every day. They’re hungry for more and want to keep getting better every day.”
“There’s a whole season still left,” Mast said. “There’s everything to play for still, so we’re not done yet.”
Bradley will search for its fifth straight win as it travels to Cedar Falls, Iowa on Wednesday to battle UNI, who the Braves defeated in the MVC opener on Dec. 1, 71-69.
“Today’s a great example of learning how to win, just finding a way to win, and then boom, just tweaking some things and reenergizing for Wednesday,” Wardle said. “We’re going to have to play better at Northern Iowa, and we know that.”
