Yes, dreams do in fact come true.
With Bradley leading Drake 69-59 with 90 seconds to go in the de facto Missouri Valley Conference regular season championship game, senior forward Ja’Shon Henry soared in for an alley-oop dunk that shook the very soul of Peoria.
11 seconds later, when it seemed the season-high crowd of 10,458 at Carver Arena couldn’t get any louder, sophomore guard Connor Hickman capped off the game of his life with a slam that put the world’s biggest exclamation point on the Braves’ 73-61 win over the Bulldogs on Sunday afternoon.
“All that offseason [and] preseason struggle we had, and then it was a rough start to the conference, it’s just it paid off,” Hickman said. “We really have just weathered everything that’s been thrown at us this year and it paid off. It’s a great group of guys that are a really connected group and I couldn’t be happier.”
“Just a lot of great emotions right now,” junior forward Rienk Mast said. “Like I was telling some of the guys, ‘You don’t get this feeling that often when you win a championship.’ It’s amazing.”
For the first time since 1996 – 27 years exactly to the date –, Bradley (23-8, 16-4 MVC) can say they are regular season champions of the MVC.
“[It was a] box I wanted to check while being the head coach of Bradley, no doubt,” Bradley head coach Brian Wardle said. “I know it means a lot to the city, the university [and] our community. Our community supports us so well, to see the arena today and see the fans helping us through that game and bringing us that energy this late in the season was a huge, huge factor.”
The win gave the Braves their 10th in a row heading into Arch Madness this coming weekend, and snapped Drake’s (24-7, 15-5) 10-game win streak that had been active since Jan. 18. The peaking couldn’t have come at a better time for the Braves and Wardle, a maestro at getting Bradley to perform its best near the end of the year.
He had a feeling that this historic day was coming all along.
“Three games ago, before we went to Southern Illinois, I put ‘16-4’ up in the locker room and I put ‘MVC Champs 2023’ up on the practice gym wall, and I said ‘We’re gonna win these next three games,’” Wardle said.
“I just believe that we were going to win this thing and win three in a row to end it,” he added. “[The players] did too. I don’t think anyone walked out of that meeting not believing. I think that was huge.”
Leashing the dogs
A highly experienced and offensively-potent Bulldogs team took a 41-40 lead with 16:05 left in the second half after a deep 3-pointer from MVC Player of the Year candidate Tucker DeVries. The Braves appeared to be slipping, giving up a momentum-shifting run before halftime and committing multiple turnovers to start the second half.
No one could have prepared for what Bradley was about to do next.
Hickman sped in for a lead-changing layup while crashing hard to the floor before making a free throw on the next possession, then sinking a pull up 3-pointer in transition while falling forward 20 seconds later for a personal 6-0 run.
The arena shook after a layup from senior guard Ville Tahvanainen, a hook shot from junior forward Darius Hannah, a pair of free throws from junior guard Duke Deen and, finally, a corner trey from senior forward Malevy Leons that provoked a deafening roar from the humongous crowd to cap off a 15-0 run from 15:17 to 9:41 of the second half.
“Let’s keep rolling,” Hickman said of his thoughts during the Braves’ run. “Don’t settle, don’t relax. [Drake] is a good team. You know, they’ll create and find ways to creep back.”
“I mean these fans, once we had two scores in a row, it was just crazy,” Mast added. “We were trying to talk to each other on defense, but we couldn’t hear anything.”
“If we couldn’t hear anything on defense, we know they couldn’t hear anything on offense and that cheering is not for them,” Hickman responded. “That feeling is just insane.”
The Bulldogs couldn’t hear, or think straight during that run, as Bradley’s defense squeezed the life out of the MVC’s hottest offense like a boa constrictor to its prey. During the run, Drake went 0-for-9 from the field with three turnovers.
Not even Drake’s star players – DeVries and guard Roman Penn – could get much going, thanks to an outstanding defensive effort by Leons and company that held two of the highest-percentage shooters in the MVC to a 9-of-27 combined mark from the field. Neither Bulldog scored from the field until the 6:18 mark of the first half.
“[DeVries and Penn] are gonna get numbers, but we thought we made them shoot a lot of shots to get them and that’s exactly what we wanted,” Wardle said.
Leons’s defense made DeVries and the Bulldogs think twice about shooting.
“Tucker played 31 minutes, Malevy guarded him for 31 minutes,” Hickman said.
With three steals on Sunday, Leons was oh-so-close to making MVC history. He finished the regular season with 51 steals and 49 blocks, one block short of being the first player in conference history to record 50 steals and 50 blocks in the same season.
“Defensive player of the year, hands down,” Mast said.
One of the many goals that the Braves accomplished on Sunday was limiting Drake to a 5-for-21 mark from behind the 3-point line, including DeVries only making one on eight attempts.
“One of our goals going into the game was hold them under six threes,” Mast said. “That was one of our main goals going into that [game], [give up five 3-pointers] and then you win the game.”
MORE: Photo gallery from Bradley’s first MVC regular season championship in 27 years
Sealing the deal
The work for the Braves wasn’t finished after the run though, as Drake guards Garrett Sturtz and D.J. Wilkins keyed an energizing 7-0 run for the visitors to bring it to 55-48 with 8:04 to go. As Bradley picked up multiple fouls and turnovers during the run, a wave of anxiety spread over Carver Arena until the Braves responded, as they have done so often as the season progressed.
Who else would it have been besides Bradley’s veterans, as Henry sunk a one-handed hook shot, Mast made a pair of free throws and Tahvanainen skillfully layed one in with his left hand to push Bradley’s lead to 61-48 with 5:32 left.
“You could just see some of our veterans found their stride down the stretch here, [Hickman] too, and I thought he was tremendous today and it was just a big game for everybody,” Wardle said.
Hickman led Bradley with a career-high 19 points on 7-of-11 shooting while also making his first three 3-pointers.
“Not very well right now,” Hickman said when asked if he could fully process what happened. “It’s kind of just fresh, I’m certain in a couple hours I’ll be able to really understand what we just did.”
Mast added 12 points and 13 rebounds for his eighth double-double of the season and made his first five shots from the field. Leons added 12 points for the Braves, who outscored Drake 16-2 in bench points. Wilkins led the Bulldogs with 14.
The response was a microcosm of the Braves’ season. After losing 86-61 to Drake on Jan. 14, Wardle made a custom t-shirt with the final score, plus “ESPNU” below it, representing that the Braves’ loss was on national television. Now after winning 10 in a row, that game is far in Bradley’s rearview mirrors now.
“We’ve made a lot of tweaks,” Mast said about the differences between the two games against Drake. “So our defensive squeeze scheme was a lot different. Our matchups were different, I think that definitely helped in our advantage.”
“Stay connected”
While shooting just 38 percent, compared to Bradley’s 56 percent mark from the field, the Bulldogs kept themselves in the game by forcing 16 turnovers from the Braves, their most since Dec. 17 where they turned it over 27 times against Arkansas.
Following a turnover from Deen, Drake forward Darnell Brodie gave the visitors a 15-14 lead nearly halfway through the first frame. A layup from Bradley’s Hannah gave BU the lead back temporarily until he turned it over and Sturtz finished a fast break layup.
The Bulldogs turned nine Bradley miscues into 11 first-half points via six steals to help them draw to a 37-34 deficit at halftime, but the Braves’ transition defense only let Drake make four points off of their seven turnovers in the second half.
“They kind of, we call it, ‘Rake it out’ like they’re raking that ball out with their hands and they do a good job of that,” Wardle said, motioning Drake’s defensive clawing. “But I thought transition [defense] was a huge key for us getting back.”
“We knew the game was going to be close, I mean, I think everybody knew that,” Hickman said about the team’s mindset during halftime. “[The halftime speech] was just to say, keep doing what we’re doing. Let’s tweak some things offensively, tweak some things defensively that we’ve seen them do and try to adjust and just keep doing what we’re doing. Stay connected.”
Senior Day scenes
Henry, Mast and Tahvanainen were honored in a Senior Day ceremony before the game. Henry was recognized for scoring his 1,000th point in Bradley’s win at Valparaiso on Wednesday and Tahvanainen was accompanied by family members who flew in from their hometown of Helsinki, Finland for the game.
But the biggest chant that came from the sea of red was after Mast was spotlighted: “One more year, one more year.”
Mast is a junior athletically, but a senior academically and will contemplate his future at Bradley following the season, as will Tahvanainen. Henry is out of eligibility, but Leons said that he plans to return to the Braves next season and use his extra year of eligibility due to COVID.
The “One more year” chants continued after Mast cut down his piece of the net following the game.
“Obviously I really, really appreciate them just saying that and showing their appreciation for me right now,” Mast said. “I’m gonna celebrate this one and we got another one next weekend and then after that, hopefully we play in the NCAA Tournament but once I’ve played my last game of this season here, I’ll talk to my people and then we’ll figure it out from there. I’m not going to say anything about that right now.”
Fun factory
As the clock wound down, Wardle emptied his bench and gave walk-ons Cade Hardtke and Sam Hennessey a sweet taste of the court, along with reserves Goanar Biliew, Pop Weathers and Christian Davis. The sign of a good day indeed.
“Being able to get guys a round of applause and get them out of the game and the last minute was big for me,” Wardle said. “You don’t know how these games are going to go, you’re playing a really, really good team.”
The most fun part of the afternoon, according to Hickman, came as the buzzer sounded and hundreds of Bradley students stormed the court.
“The court storm was pretty cool,” Hickman said. “I’m gonna be honest, I didn’t expect there to be a court storm, so when I was getting pushed [into the middle of it], I was like, ‘Oh’ (with a surprised look on his face) so I wasn’t really paying attention. I’ve never been a part of a court storm.”
Moments before receiving the MVC regular season championship trophy, Deen broke out into a dance with hundreds of onlookers.
Bunches of fans stayed late as the Braves cut down the nets at Carver Arena, a scene 27 years in the making.
“The players earned this; they deserve it,” Wardle said. “They’ve worked really hard. We’ve pushed them and challenged them and they’ve challenged back and brought intensity back. It’s just a family in that locker room and it’s a connected group.
“I’m just happy this team won it,” Mast said. “Five to 10 years down the road, when you look back at this, it’s gonna be really cool.”
March? But first, Arch
With the win, the No. 1-seeded Braves will play the winner of No. 8 seeded Northern Iowa and No. 9 seeded Illinois State at 12 p.m. on Friday at the Enterprise Center in St. Louis. It will be the beginning of their quest for an Arch Madness title and a guaranteed berth into the NCAA Tournament.
Bradley’s win and regular season championship did clinch them an automatic bid to the NIT, should they lose in St. Louis, but that possibility isn’t remotely a thought in the Braves’ heads right now.
They want a taste of the Big Dance, even more so after Mast, Henry and Tahvanainen had their March Madness bid dashed by COVID canceling the tournament in 2020.
“Yes, we want to get back,” Wardle said. “That hurt. That was one of the hardest things to go through as a coach was when that happened to that group.”
“We’re proud to have won Arch Madness back to back, we’ve checked those boxes,” he added. “We’ve gotten to the NCAA Tournament. Now, we’d like to get back and win some games and I think ultimately that’s our goal heading into this coming week. But we’re gonna celebrate tonight, enjoy tonight and tomorrow we’ll get back to work.”
Celebrate as the Braves may, but with the regular season in the books, now a whole new season starts. One loss can derail their NCAA Tournament aspirations, but the mighty Braves are playing their best basketball in decades.
“Execution is huge; smart basketball is huge this time of year,” Wardle said. “And if we can keep doing that, I believe in this team and I like this team against anybody [in all of the NCAA].”
Hit the floor Braves, it’s time to dance like it’s 1996.
Quotables:
Hickman on his alley-oop assist to Henry with 1:30 left: “I mean, if you see Ja’Shon Henry down near the goal with nobody on you, just throw it somewhere near the goal and he’s gonna go get it.”
Wardle on what the Braves improved on the most this season: “We got mentally tougher this season,” Wardle said. “We stay in the middle better, and all those things are going to be huge going into Arch Madness.”
Wardle on the best part of the day for him: “The best part was driving in with about an hour and 15 [minutes] ahead of time and to see all the fans already there walking in and celebrating and screaming and yelling outside. That was special because that’s what you want as a coach. You want to build your community and you want to bring a lot of pride and excitement to your city and I think this group has done that.”
Mast on the crowd’s energy: “Some of our guys just did this with their hands,” Mast said while waving his arms up in the air “[They did it] so often because it was just feeding us.”
Wardle on looking forward: “Now, the goal is to get back to that NCAA tournament and hopefully put ourselves in a position to win some games and it’s one day at a time. one game at a time in the first game. Friday is always the hardest. I’ll always say that so we got our hands full.”
Wardle on how much he noticed the crowd noise: “You know, I tried to stay in the moment and zone everything out,” Wardle said. “But there are times where, you know when when J-Hen hit that dunk and Malevy hit that corner three. I felt good that that crowd was energizing us.”
