After trailing by double figures in the first half, Bradley used prowess in the paint and at the free throw line to clinch a 72-64 victory over Illinois State on Saturday afternoon at Carver Arena. The win avenges the Braves’ loss on Jan. 16 at ISU in which they bobbled a 20-point lead.
Bradley capitalized on a foul-fest that featured a combined 44 whistles by making 26 of 34 shots at the stripe – highlighted by a 12-12 performance by junior forward Malevy Leons, who tied his season high with 21 points.
According to Leons and his fellow Dutchman, sophomore Rienk Mast, that success started at practice the day before.
“We always like to play [free throw shooting] games at practice,” Leons said while chuckling. “I shot some yesterday, so it worked out today.”
“He’s always the guy that’s like, ‘hey, let’s do this free throw game right now,’” Mast said with a smirk. “Always talking a lot of [trash].”
The Braves, playing without starting sophomore wing Jayson Kent, heavily leaned on the trio of Leons, Mast and junior guard Terry Roberts, who combined to score 56 of the team’s 72 tallies.
“We kept our heads through the frustration,” Wardle said. “We stayed together… and the players led the way – they really led this team to this victory.”
Both sides started the game in an offensive lull, but Bradley held a 6-2 lead at the first media timeout by holding the Redbirds to making just one of their first six shots.
From there, Illinois State woke up its offense and took control with a 12-0 run over the next four and a half minutes. The ‘Birds eventually pushed the deficit to 26-15 with an Antonio Reeves triple at the 5:21 mark.
Led by Roberts, the Braves clawed back into the game. On the next possession, Roberts dished an assist that led to a Malevy Leons dunk. Roberts scored the next four points for the Braves, later adding a 3 to cut the deficit back to one possession with under two minutes to go – setting up the Braves to enter the locker room trailing 32-31.
“The last five minutes, we started really clicking,” Wardle said. “I loved Terry Roberts’ mentality today. You could tell he got his explosiveness back a little bit.”
After trading buckets in the first eight minutes of the second frame, Bradley pulled ahead 47-45 with a Leons’ layup that put the Braves in the catbird’s seat for good at the 11:22 mark.
ISU was able to keep the deficit at one possession until under the 10 minute mark, when Mast blocked a layup from Strong, raced to the other end and slammed home a one-handed dunk off a feed from junior guard Ville Tahvanainen.
The game plan revolved around the paint in the second half, as the Braves went 0-7 from 3-point range, but poured in 20 buckets in the lane – including three dunks from Mast in the final 10 minutes, which helped keep the season-high crowd of 6,902 loud.
“I know [dunks] are two points,” Leons said. “But it’s way more than two points actually, with the energy it brings and momentum.”
The victory improves the Braves’ record to 16-12 and 10-6 in Missouri Valley Conference with two games remaining, securing a top six-seed at Arch Madness, hence avoiding the Thursday play-in game.
Bradley is 8-2 since squandering the first I-74 rivalry matchup – according to Mast, that has to do with in-game experience.
“Last time, once it got a little tough and we were on the road and the crowd got into it, we fell apart too much,” Mast said. “This time… I think we’re better at staying together and toughing it out the whole game.”
Bradley will look to stay hot as they travel to Missouri State on Wednesday night for its final road game of the season. The Bears are 11-4, good for second place in the MVC and defeated the Braves on a buzzer beater at Carver Arena on Jan. 5.
“[Illinois State] beat us the first time, and we beat them the second time,” Mast said. “For Missouri State, it’s the exact same. They beat us at our place, so now we’ve got to go over there and beat them at their place.”
NOTES: The victory over Illinois State snaps a 3-game win streak for the Redbirds over Bradley… It was Brian Jones’ second game as interim head coach for ISU after Dan Muller was fired last week… Bradley turned the ball over just once in the second half… Brian Wardle says that Jayson Kent is “day-to-day” with a wrist injury and there is no timetable for his return… The Braves wore red throwback uniforms, celebrating Bradley’s 2006 Sweet-16 team.
