With 6:42 to play, Bradley walked the ball past halfcourt and began to run a designed play.
Freshman guard Montana Wheeler drove towards the baseline, drawing two defenders and leaving senior center Ahmet Jonovic open behind the three-point line.
As Jonovic caught the ball, head coach Brian Wardle screamed at him to reverse the ball to forward AJ Smith so that the Braves could initiate the set play.
Jonovic appeared confused while looking towards Demarion Burch in the opposite corner before finally getting the ball to Smith after burning three seconds off the shot clock.
Smith initiated a dribble handoff with Burch that led to an empty-side pick-and-roll. He slipped, and Burch found him cutting wide open towards the rim.
Despite prior confusion, the play worked. Bradley got precisely what they wanted on the possession the easiest shot attempt of the night.
But Smith missed from point-blank range, leaving the ball short on the cylinder, and immediately fouled Murray State point guard Roman Domon as they battled for the rebound.
After the whistle blew, Smith lay on the ground for a few seconds, perhaps a bit banged up from a hard fall, or maybe in disbelief that he missed one of the easiest shots of his season so far.
The play wasn’t game-altering.
Bradley trailed 70-53 on the road against the Racers and had little chance of a comeback.
Yet, the sequence was emblematic of how the game had gone for the Braves — confusion about what they were to do on the court, slow execution, and, on occasion, when they found an open look inside, they struggled to convert.
The Braves led 5-4 to begin the game, and then the Racers never looked back, going on a 9-0 run to build a cushion. Bradley responded quickly, cutting its deficit to five, but Murray State punched back with a 10-0 run to push its lead to 15.
The Braves’ offense struggled to move the ball and create quality looks at the rim, instead opting for tough mid-ranges, floaters and contested layups.
“We’re taking tough ones, you know, instead of jump-stops, shot-fake, step through, pivot and kick outs,” Wardle said. “We’re low on assists right now. We’re not passing the ball like we were. We’ve got to get back to sharing it and moving it and reversing the ball quicker and then attacking.”
Sophomore guard Jaquan Johnson, who was the MVC’s leading scorer heading into the game, struggled immensely. He finished the game with four points on 2-12 shooting and has shot 5-25 over the past two games as Bradley has played tougher competition.
“They’re crowding the paint on him,” Wardle remarked about Johnson’s struggles. “But they’re making him shoot pull-up twos and floaters and not let him get all the way to the rim. And I thought he could have shot a couple of threes today that he turned down. His effort levels have to go way higher because he’s getting denied more. They’re pressuring him more. They’re really making them work to get the ball, and you’ve got to get it. And so, there are things we’re going to keep looking to do as coaches to help him.”
Murray State, on the other hand, got exactly what it wanted on nearly every possession. The Missouri Valley Conference’s (MVC) highest-scoring offense held up to its reputation, using harmonious ball movement, heavy-ball screen usage, and a barrage of three-pointers to run Bradley out of the gym.
The Braves consistently miscommunicated when guarding ball screens and were late on rotations, leaving the Racers open for threes or easy looks at the rim. With 3:29 left in the first half, Bradley had allowed Murray State to shoot 73 percent from the floor and 70 percent from three. By halftime, their opponents were on pace to score 100 points and break the school record for threes in a game.
“We let them get going, and they got hot,” Wardle said. “They can get hot offensively, especially from three. There’s going to be a lot of our breakdowns again, not listening, not talking. Our ball-screen coverage was broken again. So, a lot of things we could control, we did not do again, and the lack of effort in the first half was really disappointing. I thought they just outworked us. They were tougher, got to loose balls, played harder, picked up the ball better, and that lack of effort and talking was addressed at halftime.”
After the break, the Braves’ offense found more at times. Bradley went on multiple runs in an attempt to make a miraculous comeback, cutting its deficit to 14 with 7:25 to play. Still, each time the Braves gained momentum, a defensive breakdown followed, allowing Murray State to maintain efficient offense.
In the end, the Racers won 86-66, handing Bradley its second consecutive loss to a team in the top four of the MVC. In both defeats, the Braves struggled to execute their offense and limit opportunities on defense.
The road trip from Tennessee to Kentucky left the Braves humbled.
“We’re not ready yet,” Wardle said. “We’re not there, and we’re not consistent enough to be there. And defense wins, defense travels, rebounding travels and we didn’t do either in either game on this trip. We got exposed, and now we’ve got to get back to the drawing board, keep working, keep grinding and learn from this. If we don’t learn from this and reflect on it, then we’ve got problems.”
Bradley will need to balance learning from defeat with staying even-keeled, because its schedule isn’t getting easier anytime soon. They’ll return home on Wednesday to face Drake (8-7, 2-2 MVC), who, despite its struggles, boasts the fourth-best offense in the MVC.
“I think we need to let it hurt,” senior guard Alex Huibregtse said about the blowout loss. “But then learn from it. Move on. We need to understand that this is going to happen again if we don’t come ready to play.”
