Bradley dropped their fourth consecutive game on Friday night, as the Cleveland State Vikings won their first road game of the season 76-69 at Carver Arena.
“We had some trouble with execution, we made too many mistakes down the stretch and that can’t happen,” redshirt junior guard Christian Davis said.
In their first-ever meeting against the Vikings, the Braves couldn’t see out the win despite having a five point lead with 4:09 left on the clock. After Bradley went on a 7-2 run, the Vikings’ Drew Lowder sank his sixth three of the night to erase the slight advantage and tie it at 64.
“It’s a basketball season, it’s ups and downs, we’re on a down right now and the only thing we can do is get back to work and get back to where we know we can be,” Davis said.
There were multiple high points in the defeat, as both Davis and graduate senior Malevy Leons put up 16 point performances. After dealing with some low efficiency from the charity stripe, Bradley improved to shoot 82 percent from that same line by going 14-17 on the night.
The Vikings eventually pulled away with nine successful free throws and Cleveland State’s tenth trey in Peoria.
“We make a lot of mental mistakes, and we’re trying to correct them in practice and hold guys accountable for being locked in each possession,” Bradley head coach Brian Wardle said. “We’re still not playing very smart and it still comes back and haunts us.”
Still, glimmers of hope radiated off of one Bradley transfer who continues to get acclimated back into the intense lights of the spotlight once again.
The impact that redshirt sophomore Emarion Ellis had off the bench was evident with his 11 points, more than half of the 21 bench points the Braves had. Ellis, using his speed and versatility, glided past Vikings for points in the paint all night long with further contributions in the form of three assists and two steals in 26 minutes of play.
“We needed him to play well and he did play well, he made a lot of plays for us and hopefully we can build off that,” Wardle said.
Yet, the Vikings shined brighter, with Tristan Enaruna and Lowder putting up 49 points between the two.
Despite Leons striking first for Bradley, Cleveland State responded quickly with two threes in the span of six seconds. With 12 ties and nine lead changes, both teams exchanged points like gifts throughout the game.
Receiving his first start, freshman Demarion Burch started off the half with a couple of great individual efforts that led to assists. As Burch took the ball past the halfway line, he drove towards the zone and released the ball at the right time for Davis, who successfully made his jumper with 16:23 to go.
Despite his positive start, Burch struggled to get himself on the board, only putting up two points to go along with his three rebounds and two assists.
Shortly after, Ellis would announce himself after finishing off an 8-0 run for the Braves, giving Bradley their biggest lead of the half at 21-17 with 3:51 to go.
The lead was eventually erased as Bradley headed into the half down by three, their second time heading into the locker room with a disadvantage at Carver this season.
Ellis picked up where he left off by speeding through the Vikings defense, while Cleveland State didn’t do any stopping of their own as they conjured a 6-0 run to send the Braves into a timeout.
Despite a shot from beyond the arc going through for freshman Almar Atlason to put his point tally at five, the Vikings continued to cause havoc and kept increasing their lead.
After another timeout and a couple of shaky minutes, the Braves went on a 15-5 run to bring the score to 52-49, reclaiming the lead with 9:52 left in the second half. As the lead pivoted, a signature Davis 3-pointer gave the Braves a 64-59 lead with 4:09 left in the game.
As the Vikings climbed back and with a little over a minute left, senior guard Duke Deen delivered his third three of the night and brought the game within four. Deen got 11 points and three assists as the Braves extended their losing slump in Peoria.
“We got to get tougher, we got to get stronger, same things I’ve kind of known since the summer and fall,” Wardle said. “And start playing for each other and executing what the team needs and not what we want.”
Bradley won’t have much time to sit on this result as they return to Ohio, this time to face off against Duquesne (7-2) in a neutral site game at Lebron James Arena at St.Vincent-St. Mary High School.
