The last time Bradley men’s basketball faced Drake, they suffered a 26-point loss in the Arch Madness Championship game. The time before that, fans stormed the Carver Arena court after the team won their first regular season title since 1996.
The Braves have ridden all the highs and lows that come with facing what has become a perennial force in the Missouri Valley Conference, and on Saturday they experienced all of the adversity in one night.
“I’d rather go through it now than in St. Louis,” senior guard Duke Deen said.
A 74-67 loss dropped Bradley to 17-8 overall and 9-5 in conference play, but the journey to reach it was anything but straightforward. The Braves were down by 11 at halftime and down by 17 four minutes into the second frame, and it looked like there’d be a repeat of that dreadful championship game.
But just like they’ve done all season, the Braves didn’t quit.
Led by Deen and fellow guards Demarion Burch and Connor Hickman, Bradley ripped off a 15-0 run over the next six minutes to cut the deficit to two, and suddenly the team could taste the revenge they sought.
“You try to mimic their defense on scout team, but it takes you a half to adjust to that type of play,” head coach Brian Wardle said. “At halftime our guys realized how physical this game was going to be and we were gonna have to turn it up in the second half, and we did that so that was good.”
A Tucker DeVries three ended Drake’s scoreless run, part of a team-high 22 from the reigning MVC Player of the Year. Coming in as the league’s second-leading scorer at 20.8 points per game, containing him was a priority for the Braves, although they haven’t been able to figure it out just yet.
“He’s really good,” Wardle said. “We let him get going to start the game too, which is bad. You never want to get a guy like that going.”
Guarding DeVries rested mostly on graduate forward Malevy Leons. The reigning MVC Defensive Player of the Year, Leons helped hold DeVries to an inefficient 8-18 shooting, with over half his points coming in the first half.
“I feel like [Leons] did a great job second half,” Deen said. “First half, we just lost him and some of [his] buckets weren’t even on Mal[evy].”
Deen was the only player to score more than DeVries (23) and was the X factor for the Braves during their comeback. The senior also shot an inefficient 10-21 after starting 0-4, but he dialed up 17 second-half points, including eight during the team’s 15-0 run and nine of the team’s last 11 points.
“I just needed to pick it up for my teammates,” Deen said. “I was fine on defense first half, I just needed to put it together on both ends for these guys and I really wanted to win this game.”
But following an Atin Wright three to make it 61-56, Drake big man Darnell Brodie scored the final 13 points for the Bulldogs to seal the deal, with two offensive rebounds in the final minute and a half putting a cap on Drake’s victory.
“Every time we made a mental mistake they got us,” Wardle said. “We got to play smarter and we gotta play more consistent.”
Bradley kept the game within two possessions for the entire final stretch of play, but couldn’t find the shot that would put them over the edge. They had two chances down 68-65, but a missed jumper and layup from Hickman on back-to-back possessions rolled in and out of the hoop.
“I thought we got great looks the last three, four minutes we just ran out of legs,” Wardle said. “It looked like we were a little tired.”
Brodie and DeVries got things going for the Bulldogs to start the game, combining to score 14 of the team’s first 16 points and giving the visitors an early 12-point cushion. Bradley fought to stay in it following Drake’s initial run but were only able to bring the deficit to as little as seven, a deficit that would’ve been worse if not for three 3-pointers from Leons – including two in the final two minutes.
Bradley needed a strong start to the second half and got it, putting together a four-point possession to begin the period and bringing the lead to single digits for the first time since midway through the first half. Immediately following, Drake ripped off a 9-0 run to make it 50-34.
“They didn’t do anything that we weren’t prepared for, I mean they were in every set that we went over,” Deen said. “We just gotta start off better.”
Despite their valiant comeback attempt, inconsistency hurt the Braves in the biggest moments. Leons, Hickman and Deen combined for 53 points, but the rest of the team shot just 5-16. Bradley also shot 6-14 from the free throw line, an especially killer stat in a seven-point loss.
“We needed some guys to step up and make some shots for us too other than those big three [Deen, Leons, Hickman], and we didn’t have much of that today,” Wardle said.
Bradley did force Drake into 16 turnovers, their highest total this year, led by eight steals and numerous shot clock violations. Their stout second-half defense caused Drake to shoot just 39% in the half after shooting 62% in the first, while Bradley improved from 39% to 52%.
With the blood from another battle with Drake left on the court, the Braves have to move forward and try to defend their top-four Arch Madness seed.
“This is what you’re gonna see in St. Louis; tough, physical battles,” Leons said. “We gotta learn from this and take it with us, make it fuel us and motivate us for the coming stretch.”
“I feel like we’re gonna be very prepared when we go to St. Louis,” Deen said.
Bradley is back at Carver on Wednesday to take on Illinois-Chicago.
