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Mo points, Mo problems: Braves struggle to find answers to Mosley in road loss

Connor Hickman drives in for a layup. Photo by Jonathan Michel

Bradley’s defense has been smothering on more than a few occasions this season, holding opponents to under 70 points in eight out of its last nine contests. 

Isiaih Mosley and the Missouri State Bears, on the other hand, solved the Braves’ defensive puzzle in a 83-67 win in Springfield, Missouri on Wednesday night. 

“He’s the one guy in our league that can totally take over a game offensively and he did that tonight,” Bradley head coach Brian Wardle said. “Even when we had great defense, it didn’t matter.” 

Mosley, who is tied for first in the MVC in scoring with 20 points per game, didn’t make his first basket until five minutes into the contest, which put the Bears in front for the first time at 11-10. After a jumper from Braves freshman guard Connor Hickman knotted the score at 16 just a few minutes later, Missouri State’s Donovan Clay knocked down a 3-pointer and Mosley connected on three more triples in a span of 67 seconds to put the hosts ahead 28-20 with 7:04 left in the first half. 

Coming off an uncharacteristic 6-point outing against Northern Iowa on Feb. 20, Mosley lit up the scoreboard with a 33-point, 11-rebound double-double. Clay added 17 points on a perfect 7-7 mark from the field, and forward Gaige Prim collected 14 points as well. 

“When he gets going, he gets going; he’s an efficient player,” Hickman said of Mosley. “We needed to lock in on him more and as a team, we needed to come together more and trust our personnel and what the coaches tell us and we just didn’t do that.”

“He’s been struggling the last five games, so you were hoping he wasn’t going to have a breakout game against you,” Wardle added.

Meanwhile, sophomore forward Rienk Mast, junior guard Terry Roberts and junior forward Malevy Leons combined for just 5 points before halftime, where the Braves trailed 43-33. 

The Braves and Bears traded buckets early and often in the second half, with the Braves getting a boost from Leons. The Dutch forward scored eight in the first three and a half minutes of the second frame, thanks to a converted and-one and a deep ball, as Bradley cut the lead to 51-44. 

Stopping Mosley didn’t become any easier for the Braves though, as the dynamic guard scored from all three levels on the court, including a jumper with slightly under 14 minutes left to put the Bears up 59-47. 

“We tried to deny him [and] trap him on ball screens,” Wardle said. “We played a triangle and two against him. We were trying everything.”

With 10:56 to go, Mast sunk a three that capped off a 4-5 shooting stretch for the Red and White and brought them to within eight, but Mosley and Jaylen Minnett responded with back to back baskets to put the Bears up by double-digits again. 

While Mosley was on the bench, Hickman responded to the Bears’ punch with a baseline jumper and a 3-pointer from the top of the key to close the deficit to 67-62 with a few ticks over eight minutes left. The freshman tied his career-high with 15 points, sharing the team lead with Leons. 

“My shot felt pretty good but personally, I feel like I could be a little better on defense,” Hickman said. “But I felt like I had a pretty good rhythm throughout the game.” 

However, the Braves struggled mightily in the next 4 minutes, committing three turnovers and missing four shots. During that stretch, Missouri State went on a 10-0 run, which Bradley could not come back from, and eliminated the possibility of more late-game dramatics after Mosley knocked down a buzzer-beater to beat the Braves 71-69 on Jan. 5. 

“We had all the momentum; we got them right where we wanted to,” Wardle said. “I don’t think we contested some shots and [Donavan] Clay and [Lu’Cye] Patterson hit some big shots to open that up. Turnovers hurt us at key times again…We did get wide-open threes, we just didn’t shoot it well.” 

Missouri State shot 53 percent from the floor with 10 turnovers while Bradley shot 42% and committed 15 turnovers. 

The loss moves Bradley to 10-7 overall with Saturday’s home finale against Valparaiso as the lone game left before Arch Madness. Barring a drastic change in the NCAA’s NET rankings, Bradley will be the fifth seed in the tournament. Southern Illinois, the Braves’ only challenger for the spot, was ranked 139th before Wednesday night – 42 spots behind Bradley.

Finishing games – and the rest of the season – with gusto is paramount in the minds of the Braves. 

“We were able to fight back and get it within five, we’ve just got to finish the game out,” Hickman said. “We’ve shown that we can compete with anybody, we’ve just got to prove it.” 

“We just didn’t have it tonight and we’ve got to bring it every night down the stretch and play good, smart basketball,” Wardle added. 

Bradley’s senior night, and last test before the MVC Tournament, is set for 7 p.m. on Saturday at Carver Arena against Valparaiso.

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