Coming off the tail of a wild comeback at Southern Illinois just a couple of days ago, Bradley men’s basketball (14-5, 6-2 MVC) used scars from last season as motivation.
“We remember what they did to us last year,” graduate senior Malevy Leons said.
Losing their first two meetings with Belmont (11-8, 4-4 MVC) by scores of 63-60 and 78-76 last season, Braves’ head coach Brian Wardle admitted that those slips could have lost them an at-large bid for March Madness.
“Two tight buzzer beater games, we had opportunities to win them and we didn’t,” Wardle said. “You remember that, you want to learn from that, you want a little chip on the shoulder, and having that extra motivation is good.”
The Braves didn’t let history repeat itself as they demolished the Bruins 95-72 with a crowd of 6,521 present at Carver Arena.
Leading the charge was senior Duke Deen, who scored 25 points off seven treys to come just short of his career high that he set against SIUE earlier this season. Alongside the guard Leons, known for his play on the defensive side, the forward put up 17 points against the Bruins.
“It’s always good when you make some shots, it puts a smile on my face,” Leons said.
While the end product produced smiles at Carver Arena, the first half was a lot more even.
Going on an early 7-0 run, Belmont was finding success by the hands of Malik Dia. Ranking fourth in Missouri Valley Conference scoring with 17 points per game, the forward had a hot start to the contest, scoring nine points in the first five minutes.
Countering the Bruins, the Braves went on a run of their own, scoring 16 points. Going on runs like these are important when playing a team like Belmont, according to redshirt junior Christian Davis.
“They’re a very good offensive team and you don’t want to get into a shootout with them because it just leaves too much up to chance,” Davis said.
Up 23-12 with 12:55 left, the Braves started pulling ahead. While Dia had gone cold for the Bruins, fellow forward Cade Tyson filled in the gaps. Scoring 10 points in the first half and sparking a 10-2 run, Tyson didn’t get involved until the game had reached the 10-minute mark, but when he did it was noticeable.
“When you got two guys like that, they’re going to get their shots off, they’re going to find a way to score, we just try to lock in and make sure nobody else gets a lot of threes,” Deen said.
Despite the heavy artillery fire of Tyson and Dia, Bradley took their biggest advantage of the half, leading 28-17 with 11:42 left.
However, it was short lived as the Bruins climbed back and brought the game within one on a seven-point run with 4:44 left in the half. According to Deen, not getting back in transition doomed the Braves during this stretch.
“We kind of relaxed on the defensive end which we can’t do going down the stretch,” Deen said.
Junior Connor Hickman started a 9-0 run towards the end of the half with an acrobatic floating jumpshot. Deen finished off the late run with his third 3-pointer going in.
“Offensively it’s all about spacing and screening and opening up gaps and opening up opportunities for guys to play and I thought we did a great job with that,” Wardle said.
The Braves brought a 8-0 run out of the locker room, leaving Belmont quiet for the first three minutes of the second half. A pivotal part of the Braves’ offensive success this season has been the solidity of the bench, who has constantly provided support to the core group of starters.
Adding that needed punch to propel the Braves over the Bruins, the Bradley bench produced 25 points, spearheaded by Davis. The Colorado native put up 14 points, going 6-9 in his 31 minutes off the bench.
“The other bench guys, I have more experience with, so I can come in with those guys and I can be sort of a veteran presence,” Davis said. “It gives our second unit a little bit more of a punch offensively and I like being on both sides as well.”
The Bruins’ turnover problem carried over to the second half as two early slip-ups turned into Bradley points in that initial three-minute stretch. Throughout the game, 15 Belmont turnovers transformed into 19 points for the Braves.
Thirteen points is the closest the Bruins got to the Braves as Bradley looked comfortable on the court, with the 3-pointers right on target. With 11:06 to go, Leons buried two consecutive treys, growing the score to 68-46.
While Dia cooled down for the Bruins during the first half, towards the end he started heating up, finishing with 20 points and going 8-14 from the field. Still, the Braves eventually went on cruise control as the end neared and Belmont’s hopes for a comeback dwindled.
Despite scoring 95 points on a conference opponent, Wardle remains adamant that this performance defensively isn’t even close to the Braves’ full potential.
“We just gave up too many easy baskets in transition defense,” Wardle said. “We can get back to the drawing board on Monday and really clean some things up.”
With another convincing conference victory in the books and their win streak at eight, Bradley stays in Peoria for a rematch against Murray State, a team who ended Bradley’s opening six-game win streak back in December.
“They’re all big now honestly, we take all of our opponents with a lot of respect,” Wardle said. “We got to prepare, we got to practice well, we got to do the extra and put together a good game plan and beat all these teams.”
