Final: Bradley 66 Southern Illinois 60

[Da Coach]

Story from Bradleybraves.com with link to box score

http://www.bradleybraves.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=3400&ATCLID=205868471

[Bravesfan]

Someone pointed it out on the other board that Wells and Shayok combined for 7 points and 5 rebounds (coincidentally, Will's average numbers over the past 6 games).

Well, I guess if they can do this every game, that will make up for Will's numbers. And they get great playing experience this year too.

[KMart]

It's a great night! Bradley is first place in the MVC! ISU lost! What more could you want right now?

[Big Mike]

Reynolds:

http://www.pjstar.com/bradleyhoops/x1922386439/LIVE-Bradley-at-Southern-Illinois

[lefty]

Regardless of style points this was a real nice win...even against a bad team.

We lose a scorer and supposedly a leader and go on the road where guys have to play who normally don't and come out with a win....

It's a good win......I would have been disappointed if we lost to them with Will but not surprised had we lost without him.

[AFrey]

Regardless of style points this was a real nice win...even against a bad team.

AGREED! Any conference road win is big, no matter the opponent. Just ask the Illini...

[stevebu91]

Ok, the box score say 5015 for attendance. Does anyone have a guess on what the actually crowd at the arena was?

Great disappointment from my coworkers exists from this once proud athletic program. Further, football attendance does not support the renovations made (no surprise). They also note a concern with the student rental housing in C-dale (oversaturation leading to a decrease in rental rates).

[Da Coach]

The students were on break, and there were only a couple dozen there.
There were a lot of no-shows among the season ticket seats, probably 700-800 fewer than the announced attendance. But they did get into the game and were quite loud for a very short stretch when SIU's 3-point barrage brought them back and pulled them into the lead late in the 2nd half.
They are going through the same thing Bradley is, only they have not been very good for several years. Their non-conference schedule was not good, and the non-conference home schedule was atrocious - Benedictine University-Springfield, University of New Orleans, and Fresno State.

[wizard1]

BU 66-Southern 60

An ugly win over a terrible MVC team! BU did not play hard and showed little energy for most of the game.
Got beat on loose balls---Bad "thread the needle" passes resulting in turnovers. Sloppy, dead offense. K Bell was awful---He cannot help us without some super improvement.
We need to crank up Wells' offense. Don't look for him at all in the post---Don't even try to get him the ball inside when he is mismatched against a "small". We get very little advantage from his size.
BU HAS A LONG WAY TO GO IMO.

[Da Coach]

I was there, and I saw very good energy from the players, just bad execution at times. Maybe we are talking about the same thing, but I believe the effort and energy were there. 18 turnovers is way more than Bradley has been averaging. And the foul trouble necessitated a lot of minutes from our bench bigs, who allowed too many rebounds to go to SIU's guards (Jackson 9 rebounds, Early 7 rebounds).

[Dubl R 1]

I was there, and I saw very good energy from the players, just bad execution at times. Maybe we are talking about the same thing, but I believe the effort and energy were there. 18 turnovers is way more than Bradley has been averaging. And the foul trouble necessitated a lot of minutes from our bench bigs, who allowed too many rebounds to go to SIU's guards (Jackson 9 rebounds, Early 7 rebounds).

I agree for the most part with this. Our effort was there for the most part with the exception of some failed block outs. Our execution, decision making was really poor this game.... We put ourselves in position to lose this game, and 2 monster steals by Walt and a big 3 by Jake bailed us out. But, nonetheless, congrats to the guys for finding a way to win on the road, short-handed as well.

[peoriaspitfire]

I??™m happy we got the win, but SIU has to be the last place team in the MVC this year (Disclaimer: I haven??™t seen Missouri State play yet). This had to be one of the worst played games on both sides of the ball that I??™ve seen in years and an embarrassment to the sport. I kept thinking they need to either burn the tape of this game or use it for generations to come as a teaching tool. Thank goodness for some clutch Bradley plays at the end to save the night. I certainly hope this was a one off or else I??™m very afraid of what the Shockers will do to us on Sunday. Go Braves!

[LittleBrave]

Got beat on loose balls---Bad "thread the needle" passes resulting in turnovers. Sloppy, dead offense. K Bell was awful---He cannot help us without some super improvement.
BU HAS A LONG WAY TO GO IMO.

Bell has been decent for us in a couple games. Consistency will come with time.

[LittleBrave]

Great win. A Valley road game, coming off a big distraction, short handed, and foul trouble.

Great shooting from close. Nice job by Shayok and Nate to fill Egolfs minutes. Great stretch since Vegas by Walt. Nice to see what he can do when he doesn't have to worry as much about PG duties. Itys.

If you told me before the game that Pickett was only going to play 11 minutes and Egolf was going to be in the clink I would have chalked it up as a loss.

Good post!
Whether we win by 6 or 26, we got the job done, and good to see us come through down the stretch!

[LittleBrave]

I was there, and I saw very good energy from the players, just bad execution at times. Maybe we are talking about the same thing, but I believe the effort and energy were there. 18 turnovers is way more than Bradley has been averaging. And the foul trouble necessitated a lot of minutes from our bench bigs, who allowed too many rebounds to go to SIU's guards (Jackson 9 rebounds, Early 7 rebounds).

Seems when we win, we shoot around 50% for the game - same held true last night.
If we played that horribly as some people suggested, it seems odd that we did so shooting that well on the road and outrebounding a team (as we should have). I guess the slew of turnovers are what made the game ugly.

Walt should be considered for 1st team MVC at this point for what he's done.
Still we haven't faced a top half Valley team yet, so we'll see.
At any rate, glad we'll have him for another year, and hopefully with more time at the 2!