The big game is set.
Drake and Bradley will battle it out for the Missouri Valley Conference regular season championship at Carver Arena Sunday afternoon, thanks to the Braves’ 76-66 win at Valparaiso on Wednesday night.
Leading up to the match, Bradley fans had been cautiously optimistic about looking ahead to Sunday. To get there, they had to take care of business against the Beacons on their senior night.
Making matters worse, both teams weren’t able to get in a shootaround that morning due to a “hazardous chemical spill” at the Athletics-Recreation Center.
“Kind of a weird day having our shootaround canceled, shot clocks were on the floor and not above the rim,” Bradley head coach Brian Wardle said. “A lot of teams have come in here and not played well. Valpo has been in a lot of games and won a lot of games here so I was proud of our effort.”
Like they were shot out of a cannon, Valparaiso fired away from the 3-point arc to start the game. At the 12:56 mark in the first period, the Beacons had already connected on four triples. Just two minutes later, the home squad had built up an 18-14 lead.
Stringing together nine straight points, the Braves flipped the switch and built a 23-18 lead by the third media break with seven minutes remaining. The end of that run was capped with a slam by senior forward Ja’Shon Henry who was hot in pursuit of climbing over the 1,000-career point mark.
Henry had scored eight points in a span of three minutes and sat just two points away from the milestone with four minutes left in the half. Despite playing the rest of the way, he’d have to wait just a bit longer before breaking through.
Heading into the locker room, Bradley held its largest lead of the game by a score of 42-30. Rebounding was the main reason why the Braves were so successful in the first frame.
“That’s always our mindset,” Henry said. “That’s part of our identity is rebounding on the offensive side and defensive side.”
With the Braves bullying the Beacons on the boards and grabbing 10 of 24 first half rebounds on the offensive end, Bradley was able to erase misfires with second-chance makes. Irritating Valparaiso further was the 11 points off turnovers and six steals the Braves hauled in. BU had only given up the ball themselves three times through the first 20 minutes.
Back out of the break, sophomore guard Connor Hickman furthered the lead with a triple off a Beacon turnover in the first minute of action. Leading by 15, Valparaiso refused to go silently into the night. Cutting it down to a 47-37 Bradley lead, they felt to be inching closer.
With 15:37 remaining, Hickman threw a lob to junior forward Darius Hannah, but as Hannah’s motion carried him out of bounds, he turned back and bounced it to Henry, who scored inside and became the 51st player in Bradley history to reach the 1,000-point threshold.
Afterwards, he shared what the moment meant to him.
“Playing Division I has always been a goal of mine [and was] passed on by my father so this is pretty special to me,” Henry said. “I mean from the journey from my freshman year to where I’m at now, I mean, it’s been a really fun ride.”
“It couldn’t have happened to a better guy and a better teammate,” Wardle added. “I think he’s really happy that it happened with this group this year because he’s very close to these guys.”
As players celebrated Henry’s latest achievement, the Beacons continued their fight back. Now up 51-44, Bradley stared down a much closer game.
An 11-2 run for the Red and White ensued next, stretching the lead back out to 62-44 with under 10 minutes to go. Bradley would continue to hold their opponent at arm’s length as the Braves cruised to their ninth straight victory, setting up the biggest game in Peoria in ages.
Mast led the Braves with 18 points and nine boards while Henry contributed 15 points. Hannah gathered in a career-high eight rebounds.
If there was any doubt, Wardle’s message is clear to the team with such huge implications on the line.
“Our theme all year has been ‘one more’ and we got one more left; one more to this regular season that hopefully we can come out and play our best.”
Mast anticipates the showdown Sunday to liken a “dogfight” while Henry opts to see it as a “war.” No matter how you see it, Sunday will produce one winner, and one loser. The oldest rivalry in the Missouri Valley Conference adds another chapter to it. How each team will be etched in it is to be seen in front of thousands at Carver Arena.
Bradley and Drake will tip off at 3 p.m. on Sunday. Tickets to the game, which will be a “Red Out”, can be found here.
