Before the start of this season, the Bradley men’s basketball team and its head coach, Brian Wardle, created the slogan “Prove ‘Em.”
The mantra has been everywhere: in hype videos, on Braves merchandise and as a hashtag on X and Instagram.
Sunday evening, Bradley continued to prove doubters wrong when they beat Middle Tennessee State 80-69 to win the Myrtle Beach Invitational Championship.
“I thought it was a good theme for this year’s team,” Wardle said. “You want to prove the doubters wrong. We take on that challenge and want to keep getting better and that’s the biggest part. You can’t fall in love with success at all. It’s great. Enjoy it, but we have to get back to the grinding.”
The win marks Wardle’s fourth in-season tournament title in 10 years as Bradley’s head coach.
“It’s hard to do, and it never gets old,” Wardle said. “It can really help your team build comradery. You can learn a lot about your team’s character and how close-knit of a locker room your team [is] in these tournaments.”
“These guys deserve this,” Wardle added. “They work really hard and we’ve practiced efficiently. I told everyone coming into this tournament that I felt good because of the way we were practicing.”
The Braves not only practiced effectively but also played efficiently in the tournament. In the final game, the team shot 50 percent from the field and 45.5 percent from three. Four of the five starters finished in double figures.
Bradley’s offense, as a whole, has been difficult to guard. The Braves are fourth in the country in effective field goal percentage, seventh in three-point percentage and 57th in offensive efficiency.
“I don’t know. I think they got to throw a penny in a well and make a wish,” senior forward Christian Davis said when asked how a team should try to stop the Braves.
Davis led the way, finishing the game with 19 points on six-for-eight shooting and added three rebounds and four assists. In three games, Davis averaged 15.6 points, three rebounds and two assists on nearly 64 percent from the field and 77 percent from behind the arch.
After his performance in the championship game, Davis was named tournament MVP.
“I couldn’t be happier for the young man,” Wardle said. “He’s a great guy—high character. A great teammate and has become our lockdown defender. Three years ago, I would have never said that, but right now, I’m saying it loudly and proudly because he can really guard us, and he’s done a great job for us.”
Deen sets the tone
Deen and the Braves started the game on a mission.
After The Blue Raiders opened the half on a 5-0 run, Deen outscored Middle Tennessee 10-5 over the next three minutes and helped Bradley open up a 16-10 lead.
“I knew I had to go out there and be in attack mode from the jump,” Deen said. “In the last two games, I’ve been facilitating well; I just needed to knock down some shots. I feel like if I was able to knock down some shots, we would’ve beat those teams by 20 or 20 plus.”
When Deen attacks early, whether making shots, getting to the free-throw line or getting his teammates involved, it leads to good results for Bradley.
“When he’s in attack mode like that, our guys follow it,” Wardle said. “We always play better when he’s aggressive, even if he’s missing shots. If he’s in attack mode, we’re a better team.”
The rest of the team followed their star guard’s lead. The Braves played determined, unselfish basketball and looked well-prepared for the matchup. The team played extremely well defensively, holding The Blue Raiders to five-for-16 from the field.
Middle Tennessee responds
Bradley dominated the first 13 minutes of the game, but Middle Tennessee started to battle back with seven minutes to go. The team got a boost from sophomore forward Chris Loofe, who scored 11 points off the bench.
The Blue Raiders attacked the paint, finished around the rim and got to the free-throw line. Loofe led a 7-0 run that helped the team cut the deficit to two before halftime.
“I don’t think we played real smart the first half,” Wardle said. “Defensively, we didn’t play personnel well. We didn’t play some of the actions they ran offensively very well. We got driven too much. I wasn’t real happy with our defense at halftime, but we made some good adjustments.”
Creating a cushion
At halftime, Wardle challenged his team to come out and defend better in the second half, and his players listened.
The Braves held Middle Tennessee to three-for-10 shooting to begin the half and did a much better job contesting shots and defending without fouling. Bradley’s defense jump-started its offense. The team got out and ran, shared the ball and knocked down threes.
The Braves made eight of their first 12 shots and outscored the Blue Raiders 19-9 to open a 13-point lead with 12 minutes remaining.
Down, but not out
Similar to the first half, Middle Tennessee did not roll over and give up. The team was familiar with adversity, coming into the game missing its starting point guard, senior Jylnn Counter.
The Blue Raiders continued to shoot poorly but defended better and attacked the offensive glass. The team gathered several offensive rebounds that led to second-chance points and continued to score in the paint. Their perseverance led to a 6-0 run to cut the lead to five.
The teams continued to battle. Bradley’s offense got a bit cold, but Deen, Davis, senior Zek Montgomery and Darius Hannah hit timely shots. Hannah and Davis had big second halves. Hannah scored 12 of his 16 points and grabbed nine of his 13 rebounds in the second half. Davis followed suit, scoring 16 of his 19 in the second half.
“I challenged Darius at halftime,” Wardle said. “He responded like a grown man and a senior would. Christian had some big plays. Duke made big, timely shots for us in this game. I’m just very proud of those guys and their leadership in that locker room.”
Hannah slams the door shut
The Brave led 70-65 with three minutes to go. After a timeout, Deen and Hannah ran a high pick-and-roll. Hannah received a pocket pass from Deen, took one dribble and posterized a Blue Raiders defender.
The dunk energized the crowd of Bradley fans who made the trip to South Carolina, the bench and the players on the floor. The Braves used the momentum from the slam to end the game on an 8-2 run despite multiple attempts from Middle Tennessee to get back in the game.
“We work on facing adversity,” Davis said. “We make sure we get through it and stay level as a group. Everyone says basketball is a game of runs, and it’s true. The ups are great, but when the downs come, we have to be able to stay even-keeled and keep doing what we do.”
Bradley has a few days of rest before returning to Carver Arena to play Judson on Black Friday.
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