Bradley men’s basketball (20-6, 11-4 MVC) defeated Southern Illinois (12-14, 7-8 MVC) 78-64 at Carver Arena on a snowy Wednesday night, earning them the season sweep over the Salukis and their 20th win of the campaign.
The Braves have achieved 20 wins in a season six times in the past eight years, and this one was by no means easy.
Southern Illinois rolled into Peoria with a 7-7 Missouri Valley Conference record, including seven wins over a nine-game stretch. They swept a dark-horse UIC team and upset Northern Iowa in Carbondale. These dogs were hungry for revenge against a Bradley team that beat them at home in the conference opener 83-60.
Bradley was fresh off a thrilling win at Evansville over the weekend. It was a refreshing victory that brought the Braves back into the win column after a three-game losing streak.
Methodical start
From the tip-off, both teams matched each other’s production, with neither team taking the lead with more than four points. It was a battle of grind-it-out defense to see which team would flinch first and spark a run.
At 5:34 in the first half, with Southern Illinois leading 22-18, Bradley ignited a game-changing 15-0 run, during which the Braves made five straight three-point shots. This ambush featured seniors Duke Deen, Zek Montgomery and sophomore Demarion Burch. Deen created the offensive explosion and was responsible for three of them.
It was one of Bradley’s best endings to a first half all season. The team has experienced late first-half slumps throughout the year that have plagued their second-half starts. Not this night, though, and the Braves kept their rhythm going to start the final period with a 9-2 run.
The Braves eventually built a 62-41 lead after Burch’s two free throws with 10:28 to play in the game. However, things got a little murkier as Southern Illinois’ Ali Dibba became a force in the paint.
Salukis surge
After Bradley had its biggest lead by 21 points, Southern Illinois went on a 13-0 run that cut the Braves’ lead to eight. The Braves went scoreless for four minutes and 41 seconds while the Salukis made five of their six field goals and earned multiple trips to the free-throw line.
Bradley couldn’t afford another second-half collapse. They came close to losing a 21-point lead on Saturday at Evansville and faced another late-game challenge.
Deen put on his cape in both games and played like the MVC preseason player of the year that Bradley has needed lately.
Deen’s domination
The fifth-year senior point guard created offense for his teammates to make plays by finding open players. He assisted on senior Christian Davis’ three-pointer that ended Southern Illinois’ largest run of the evening.
Deen finished with 25 points, four rebounds and three assists. He shot nine-for-16 from the field and converted on seven of his 12 three-point attempts. Overall, the team shot 14-of-27 from behind the arc.
None bigger than at the 1:12 mark, when Deen hit his corner-three dagger while falling down to give the Braves a 76-64 advantage. However, he wasn’t satisfied with that basket and immediately forced a Saluki turnover on the opposite side of the court for the defense.
The 25 points scored was a season-high for Deen and could be a momentum builder for the team’s heart and soul as Bradley nears the home stretch of the regular season.
Moving forward
The outing was one of Bradley’s best defensive games over the past three weeks. Southern Illinois’ 64 points were the fewest allowed since Bradley’s 61-57 win over Illinois State, and the Salukis only made seven three-pointers across the 40 minutes of playing time.
Additionally, Bradley protected the basketball at a good rate once again, finishing the game with just seven turnovers, which marked their second-fewest in a game all season. After turning the ball over 10 or more times in 11 games over a 12-game sample size, the Braves now have back-to-back games with single-digit turnovers for the first time since Dec. 3.
It’s all coming together at the right time for Bradley, and they’ll need to keep this level of play consistent for their next matchup on Sunday afternoon in Des Moines, Iowa. The Braves take on the MVC standings leader, Drake, to avenge their 64-57 home loss to the Bulldogs on Jan. 8.
