Losing.
It’s a feeling all athletes know, and it’s not a good one. Your stomach drops, you get a bad taste in your mouth and you replay the game over and over in your head to figure out what could’ve gone better, hoping it’ll give you some solace and let you move on to the next one. But you can’t change the outcome.
Bradley men’s basketball has dealt with this feeling a lot as of late, as Monday night was the latest installment in a five-game losing streak that saw the Braves plummet to 6-5 after an undefeated start to the season.
And in a game against Duquesne (8-2) at St. Vincent-St. Mary High School, where Bradley committed a season-high 19 turnovers, it was their last giveaway that ultimately led to their downfall.
“We just didn’t execute, that’s it,” senior forward Darius Hannah said.
With the game tied at 67 following a three from redshirt junior Christian Davis, Duquesne’s Jimmy Clark III stepped out of bounds to give the ball back to the Braves with 23 seconds to go. Winding the clock down, the Dukes fouled with five seconds left, giving Bradley a chance to set up a play to win the game.
Electing to not call a timeout, senior forward Malevy Leons tried to hit Hannah with the inbound pass as he cut to the basket, but Clark intercepted the ball and found David Dixon in transition for a buzzer-beating layup, giving the Dukes a 69-67 win.
According to head coach Brian Wardle, it was a play the Braves have never run before.
“That last play, that’s all me,” Wardle said. “I should’ve called timeout and I should’ve done the thinking and not them.”
Playing in LeBron James Arena, the Braves could not overcome James’ high school head coach Keith Dambrot and his Dukes. The trio of Clark, Dae Dae Grant and Andrei Savrasov scored 55 of Duquesne’s 69 points, leading to Bradley’s second loss in Akron, Ohio this season.
However, Bradley had a Duke on their side, as senior guard Duke Deen tied a season-high 15 points to lead the Braves, also adding four assists and three steals. Leons and Hannah also scored in double figures, with the former turning in his second double-double of the season.
But once again, turnovers marred the Braves, leading to 24 points for Duquesne. In the absence of junior guard Connor Hickman, sophomore transfer Emarion Ellis had five turnovers while Leons, Deen and freshman Almar Atlason coughed up three apiece.
“We just tried to do too much at times,” Wardle said. “Guys were trying to drive into gaps that weren’t there.”
It was the team’s second straight game without Hickman and the junior’s veteran leadership has been sorely missed. Running a committee of guards to fill his shoes, Wardle is still looking for someone to step up for his squad.
“I can live with one or two turnovers if you’re playing 30-plus minutes. I cannot live with that many turnovers when you’re not playing a lot of minutes or the ball’s not in your hands a whole lot,” Wardle said. “Right now with Hick[man] out of the game we gotta find some guys that can play a little more calmer and take care of the ball for us.”
Savrasov scored the Dukes’ first seven points of the contest to get them out to an early lead, aided by six turnovers in the first six minutes from the Braves. Wearing 23 in the same gym James donned the number in, Savrasov finished the game with a season-high 17 points.
Duquesne’s run wouldn’t last long, as Bradley got some rare playing time from junior walk-on Cade Hardtke that sparked a 6-0 run to give the Braves their first lead. That run grew to 10-0 to extend Bradley’s lead to 18-13, as they held the Dukes scoreless for over four minutes.
“Cade’s solid, doesn’t make mistakes,” Wardle said. “He executes whatever we call, he’s in the right position at the right time defensively, he’s a smart player. We need that consistent, smart play right now. He might have some more opportunities moving forward.”
Both teams’ leading scorers were held scoreless until late in the first half, as Grant didn’t score his first points until there was 2:25 left and Leons followed with a three on the next possession for his first basket. Savrasov did the heavy lifting for the Dukes in the first frame by shooting a perfect 5-5 from the field, while nine offensive rebounds kept the Braves in it and matched their offensive board total from their last game against Cleveland State.
Free throws plus a Savrasov steal and euro step layup combo cut the Braves’ lead to one, but they ripped off an 8-0 run to bring the lead back up to nine with 5:33 left in the first half. An 8-0 run of their own helped the Dukes tie things up at 30, but three minutes later Bradley headed to the locker room with a 40-37 lead despite 12 first-half turnovers.
“We still can control the controllables a lot better as a group, but overall the competitive spirit was there [and] the effort was there to win the game,” Wardle said.
The game went Bradley’s way out of halftime, as threes from Deen and freshman guard Demarion Burch accentuated the Braves’ lead. They led 52-42 with 15:10 to play, their largest lead of the game.
However, Duquesne ended up crawling their way back, going on a 13-2 run over seven minutes of game time to retake the lead for the first time since 13:10 in the first half. Once again, it was on a Savrasov layup.
A back-and-forth affair started from that point, and the Braves just couldn’t finish on the right side of the scoresheet.
“We’ve had opportunities in this losing streak to win some games,” Wardle said. “We just have some stretches where we don’t play well on either end so we got to keep getting rid of those segments and keep buckling down.”
As important as it is to reflect on what could’ve been, Wardle and the athletes know that it’s equally important to put the losses behind you and push forward.
“We are looking ourselves in the mirror, we’re working,” Wardle said. “We’re not gonna feel sorry for ourselves because no one else does. Our character comes out in these losing streaks and you got to get back to work tomorrow and improve.”
The Braves are back home tonight to take on Southern Illinois-Edwardsville at 7 p.m.
