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Trio wills Bradley to quarterfinal win

 

After a slow start to the second half, senior Darrell Brown, junior Elijah Childs and freshman Ville Tahvanainen all rose up to lead Bradley to a 64-59 victory over Southern Illinois in the Missouri Valley quarterfinals on Friday afternoon. 

With seven minutes remaining, Childs gave Bradley its first lead since the 15:51 mark of the first half with two free throws. Minutes later, Tahvanainen drained two threes in the span of a minute and 10 seconds to put the Braves ahead 53-51. From that point forward, they wouldn’t trail again. 

After a frustrating first half in which he scored just four points, Brown scored 15 second-half points to lead the Braves to the semifinals with 19 total points. 

“Every year when a team wins this tournament – us last year – someone’s got to step up every game and make plays,” Bradley head coach Brian Wardle said. “Obviously, Darrell stepped up big time in the second half, made a lot of plays for us. Elijah was really good all game, Ville’s threes [were big].”

In the first half, things weren’t falling as easily for the defending champions. After the Braves scored the first five points of the game, the Salukis went on a 12-0 run and held BU scoreless for a whopping eight-minute stretch. 

Despite the long scoring drought, Bradley was down just 27-24 at the half, thanks to its defense and Childs, who scored 10 points in the first frame. 

“I saw that Eli had it going on,” said Brown, who had five first-half assists. “Obviously, if you’re a great player and you’re a good teammate, you feed the hot hand. I think the first half we tried to do that, keep feeding Eli, and making the right plays at the right time.” 

In the second half, Southern kept the momentum in its favor by opening the frame on a 10-4 stretch. However, the Braves stayed composed and used mental tenacity to climb back into the game. 

“The huddles [were] great,” Wardle said. “They just kept saying keep guarding, keep rebounding. This offense will come.” 

“We’ve been down before, we don’t get discouraged,” Childs said. “We don’t get down on each other. We try to stay positive.”

That experience shined through when the game came down to the wire. With 43 seconds remaining, Saluki’s grad-transfer and former Brave Ronnie Suggs made two free throws to tie the game at 59 apiece, prompting a Bradley timeout with 39 seconds remaining. 

Out of the timeout, senior Nate Kennell fed sophomore forward Ja’Shon Henry in the post, where he made a layup and was fouled by Suggs. He converted the and-one free throw, which served as a dagger of sorts, and put the Braves up three. 

 

Sophmore Ja’Shon Henry put the Braves up three with this and-one layup.

“We were trying to get a pin down and a post touch for Elijah,” Wardle said of the play. “[SIU was] not leaving [Childs] and they were face guarding [Brown] so Ja’Shon just made a great cut, his man turned his head.” 

The assist came after a largely quiet performance from Kennell, who finished with just three points. In his scoring absence, Tahvanainen scored 12 points, nine of which coming in the second half. 

Childs, the 2019 MVC tournament’s most outstanding player, appeared to pick up where he left off last season. A consistent force throughout the game, the junior scored 16 points, to go with nine rebounds and five blocks. 

To Brown, the come from behind victory was familiar territory. 

“That’s pretty much been the story of my career since I’ve been here, we’re the underdog team and most people count us out,” Brown said. “I think, when we get down to stuff like that, we stay together throughout all of that.” 

According to the four-year starter, the Braves’ locker room chemistry is what keeps the team composed. 

“I think once you just keep working hard and give it everything you’ve got, when your teammates are good teammates and you’ve got great guys in the locker room, you can pretty much overcome anything,” Brown said. “I felt like we did that in the second half. We stayed together and got a big win.” 

With the victory, Bradley advances to the semifinals for the third consecutive season. They’ll face cinderella-candidate Drake, who pulled off a historic upset over regular season champion Northern Iowa 77-56 earlier on Friday. 

The Bulldogs are the first team to play on Thursday and advance to the semifinals since No. 7 Bradley upset No. 2 Creighton in 1998. Additionally, the Drake win is the first time an 8-seed has beat a 1-seed in the history of the tournament. 

“They’re playing well, they’re a good team,” Wardle said. [They’re the] best 8-seed I’ve ever seen. You’ve got to be kidding me. They’re tough. We’ve got our hands full. We know that. As long as we defend and rebound, we’ll be alright.” 

The Braves and Bulldogs split the season series, with the home team coming away victorious in each game. Saturday’s rubber match, with a trip to the championship on the line, tips off at 2:30 p.m.

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