“I think we need to let it hurt, but then learn from it, move on and understand that this is going to happen again if we don’t come ready to play.”
That’s what graduate guard Alex Huibregtse said after Bradley’s blowout loss to Murray State on Sunday.
The Racers ran the Braves out of the gym in Kentucky, raining a barrage of threes in the opening period to put the game away before halftime.
Bradley’s defense lacked focus and effort, and the Missouri Valley Conference’s (MVC) top offense exposed a team that wasn’t ready to compete with the top dogs.
“We’re not ready yet,” head coach Brian Wardle said after the loss. “We’re not there, and we’re not consistent enough to be there. We got exposed, and now we’ve got to get back to the drawing board, keep working, keep grinding and learn from this. If we don’t learn from this and reflect on it, then we’ve got problems.”
The Braves had no time to lick their wounds.
On Wednesday, they were back home, and the Drake Bulldogs (8-8, 2-3 MVC) were in town to renew the oldest rivalry in MVC history.
“We let the road trip hurt for a day, and then we got back in the gym and got back to work,” Huibregtse said. “We knew we had to respond after dropping those two on the road. Drake’s a good team, well coached, so we knew it wasn’t gonna be easy.”
Keeping a dog on its leash
Huibregtse warned it wouldn’t be easy, and on paper, he was right. The Bulldogs, despite their 8-7 record, boasted the Valley’s fourth-ranked offense, and Bradley had struggled to consistently defend teams that could score the ball.
On the floor, though, Bradley delivered a response that made the challenge look anything but.
The lack of defensive effort, focus and willingness to compete in the Braves’ previous two games was washed away.
For the first five minutes, the game was back-and-forth, with Drake holding a slim 7-6 lead, but Bradley turned up the intensity.
The Braves fought through ball screens, kept their hands active in passing lanes, communicated switches and made timely rotations to completely stifle the Bulldogs’ offense.
They let their defense ignite their offense, using forced turnovers to get out, transition and finish easy buckets. Bradley moved in unison, sharing the ball harmoniously, running their sets with purpose and finding the best shot on every possession.
The Braves looked like a team in desperate need of a statement win after back-to-back humbling losses to begin the calendar year. Their increased effort, communication and selflessness led to a 17-0 run over the next 6:23 to open a 23-7 lead.
“I was very proud of the team for how unselfish they played,” Wardle said. “On the defensive end, on the offensive end, we looked for each other, shared the ball and helped each other. On defense, we talked, and our effort level went up. You know, the more you talk, the more your intensity rises. And I’m very proud of them for that, because we didn’t have a lot on the road trip that we were just on.”
Two free throws from Drake’s Andrew Alia ended the run, but Bradley continued to keep the dogs on their leash. They held Drake to 6-24 from the field, 4-12 from behind the arc and forced nine turnovers in the first half.
Most importantly, the Braves limited senior guard Jalen Quinn, who came in as the MVC’s leading scorer at over 18 points per game, to just five points.
Senior forward AJ Smith, who’d come off the bench in the last few games, took the matchup and was locked in on taking Quinn out of the game.
“The game plan was mainly focused on shutting down number three,” Smith said about the matchup. “We tried to make him play selfish tonight, take bad shots and kind of just get their flow all messed up. Overall, I feel like we did a good job on him. Finished with 11 points, but he averages almost 20 a game. I think that was crucial for us.”
Smith took away Drake’s best player and contributed offensively, scoring seven of the 17 during Bradley’s run to break the game open. The forward slashed to rim, grabbed offensive rebounds, knocked down threes, and played with a competitive fire indicative of a player with something to prove.
“The season is full of ups and downs,” Smith remarked about returning to the starting lineup. “You go through slumps, you have hot moments and hot streaks. I feel like just as a senior and just being a starter, going to the bench puts more of an edge on my shoulder. Nothing’s guaranteed. You’re not guaranteed to start every game, but you’re expected to come out and bring toughness, energy and effort, and to compete every night, to try to uplift the guys and have them compete at a high level too.”
Championship tendencies
That edge that Smith spoke of rubbed off on his teammates and showed up for all 40 minutes.
At halftime, the Braves were leading 40-19, well on their way to a dominant win, but the message in the locker room was clear: treat the second half like the score was 0-0.
The message was received.
Bradley opened the half on a 10-0 run before Drake could even think about gaining momentum, pushing the lead to 31 and effectively putting the game out of reach.
Throughout the second half, Drake made a few small runs, but every time the Bulldogs gained a little ground, Huibregtse answered.
The graduate guard, who finished with 15 second-half points, knocked down timely threes to keep Drake a country mile away from striking distance. His shot-making steadied the Braves and ensured there would be no repeat of the lapses that plagued them on the road.
Bradley’s defensive intensity never waned. The Braves stayed connected, closed out under control and rebounded collectively, refusing to give Drake the extra possessions it needed to mount any sort of comeback.
Offensively, they remained patient and unselfish, continuing to move the ball side to side and take what the defense gave them.
I just didn’t want to guys to let up,” Wardle said. We’re not that team this year, like we have to focus, no team is. I watch teams that have leads all the time on TV, every week, every night, championship-level teams sustain a high level of play no matter what the score is; they focus, they execute, even at the end. No matter what the score is, or where you’re playing, or who you’re playing, you’ve got to do the right things all the time.”
The result was a wire-to-wire performance that looked nothing like the team that had been “run out of the gym” days earlier. It was a response built on pride, effort and attention to detail — the very things Wardle challenged his team, especially his seniors, to rediscover.
“Coach called us out,” Huibregtse said. “And as a senior, you know, it hurts. Like you want to be at your best, for your teammates, for the young guys, want to show them how to play, how to win. And you know, we weren’t doing that. I appreciate the coach calling us out. And I think it kind of kicked us into gear a little bit. I thought tonight was a good way to respond.
In the end, the Braves won 93-66. The 27-point win was the fourth-largest in the all-time series history and the largest in 67 years.
Though it was Huibregtse’s and Smith’s first time playing in this historic rivalry, they quickly learned how much it meant to the fanbase and their teammates.
“The fellas were talking about it for the past couple of days,” Smith said. “I mean, this is a big win for us and for the program. A couple of the guys are our returners, and they were all saying, like, ‘man, we’ve got to beat them.’ I mean, they put us out last year, and the past two years, so, we came in with a chip on our shoulder, and I feel like that showed today.”
