An eager Carver Arena crowd of over 7,000 faired long security lines to watch the 127th matchup between the Braves and Illinois State last night. Bradley entered the matchup at the bottom of the Missouri Valley Conference standings at 1-5.
What they witnessed was arguably Bradley’s most powerful game of the season. After their first conference win against Southern Illinois, Bradley dominated ISU 85-68, leading by as many as 22, to bring the all-time series between the two teams to 65-62 in favor of the Braves.
The starting lineup from the Southern Illinois matchup of seniors Dwayne Lautier-Ogunleye, Luqman Lundy, Luuk van Bree, junior Darrell Brown and sophomore Elijah Childs proved successful once again, scoring 63 of the team’s points and making all the team’s 10 3-pointers.
ISU won the opening tip and jumped out to an early 9-2 lead, but the Braves caught up to them at 13-12 with 13:55 left in the first half. Bradley didn’t let go of the lead the entire game after that, slowly pulling away and closing out the first half 42-26 with an 18-6 run. Darrell Brown led both teams with 13 points.
The Redbirds shot horrendously the entire game, shooting 31.3 percent from the field in the first half. They finished the game 23 for 61, including 7 of 26 shots from beyond the arc.
Luuk van Bree continued Bradley’s success into the second half, hitting three 3-pointers to propel Bradley to a 22-point lead at 17:15 left in the game. He secured a career-high 21 points with Bradley fans cheering him on with long tones of “Luuuuuk.”
“I really appreciate the crowd doing that,” van Bree said. “[A crowd chanting my name is] something I would have never thought [happen].”
Despite the wide margin, ISU still had gas in the tank. The Redbirds chipped away at the lead with seniors Malik Yarbrough and Phil Fayne heading to the free throw line four times combined in two minutes. Yarbrough finished the game with a 25-point effort despite a sore knee.
Yarbrough and Fayne’s desperate offensive production and senior Keyshawn Evan’s 4-point play with 7:32 left pushed the Redbirds to a close sniff of the Braves, cutting the lead to five.
Immediately, Brown responded with a 3-pointer, then Luqman Lundy stole the ball back and assisted a Lautier-Ogunleye 3-pointer. After Fayne committed his fifth and final foul, a Lundy layup and free throw extinguished any chance for an ISU comeback.
Lundy’s clutch plays allowed him to reach a career high of 11 points and secured the win for the Braves. During the postgame conference, he could barely hold himself from laughing and containing his excitement.
“Whether I was playing 1000 minutes or zero minutes, I was going to have fun regardless,” Lundy said. “I’m here. I’m blessed to be here. My teammates know that I’m the same person whether I play or whether I don’t.”
Bradley head coach Brian Wardle expressed his happiness for Lundy, commended van Bree’s contribution and commented that both improved the team’s pace of the game.
“We’ve been trying to run,” Wardle said. “Luuk helps because he spreads the floor out. Luqman Lundy played great. I loved how he pushed the ball and increased the tempo. Offense always looks better when the ball goes.”
Even ISU coach Dan Muller complimented Bradley’s defensive grip on the Redbirds and the 40-29 rebounding advantage.
“Bradley is a physical team,” Muller said. “We’re not at times. They’re better defensively. They got transition buckets. We had a handful of guys not ready to play. We had that comeback, but we were just so bad … Our defense was so bad.”
This was the first game of the season where the Braves broke the 80-point mark with nearly all but one of the active players scoring. Darrell Brown scored 20 with five 3-pointers.
“We got our mojo back on the road at Southern,” Brown said. “We stayed together and spent some time off the court. We got clicking again and it’s been carrying over onto the court.”
Wardle reiterated that sharing the ball and staying consistent denoted the keys to winning games and that Bradley needed to keep the identity it displayed against the Redbirds a constant.
“You just gotta remember how to win and what makes you win,” Wardle said, “Every year is different. Every schedule is different. Every roster is different.”
The Braves will now hit the road, taking on Missouri State (9-11 overall, 3-4 conference) this Saturday and facing Evansville (9-11 overall, 3-4 conference) next Wednesday.
