Final score: Bradley 84 Evansville 72

[Da Coach]

Next game: Evansville (14-14, 5-10) at Bradley (9-19, 4-11), Saturday, Feb. 18, 1:00 PM

The game is on ESPN3.com
Live stats: http://www.sidearmstats.com/bradley/mbball/
Chat room: http://www.chatzy.com/bradleyfans

Pregame story from BradleyBraves.com-

http://www.bubraves.com/news/2017/2/17/mens-basketball-braves-host-evansville-on-saturday.aspx

Standings-

http://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/conferences/standings/_/id/18/year/2017/missouri-valley-conference

Bradley has lost 3 in a row, and 9 of their last 10. Evansville has won 4 in a row, after a 9-game losing streak. Evansville is just 1-6 in MVC road games, and 2-7 overall in road games. Bradley is 3-4 in MVC home games, and 6-7 overall at home.

Evansville is a 3 point favorite according to Las Vegas oddsmakers.

Evansville was picked to finish in 9th place in the preseason MVC poll, one spot behind Bradley who was picked 8th.

Evansville website-

http://www.gopurpleaces.com/index.aspx?path=mbball

UE stats-

http://www.mvc.org/mbb/stats/UE.HTM#team.ind

BU stats-

http://www.mvc.org/mbb/stats/BRAD.HTM#team.ind

MVC stats-

http://www.mvc.org/mbb/stats/confstat.htm

[Da Coach]

Bradley recovered from a lethargic start of the 2nd half, and after falling behind by 14 points, came back to win 84-72.
Stats-

http://www.sidearmstats.com/bradley/mbball/

http://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/boxscore?gameId=400918241

[tornado]

The score at
14:02 55-41
12:30 56-43
10:26 58-52
8:18 60-58
6:38 64-63
...then we took the lead at 5:51 66-64
4:09 stretched the lead to 71-66
had an 8 pt lead 76-68 at 2:09
and did not fold...

that was the best 10 minute stretch of the season...

We also had a 9-0 run from the 12 min mark in the 1st half 'til the 9 min mark..
FUN game to watch!

Darrell Brown, Jr. 22 pts
Donte Thomas & Jayden Hodgson 13 pts each
Hodgson also had 5 assists and ZERO turnovers and was 3-5 from the arc
Luuk van Bree had only 5 pts but excellent defense, 3 blocks, 7 rebounds, 6 assists and stayed out of foul trouble!!
Nate Kennell with foul trouble but hit a nice 3-pointer to key the 1st half run

Refs tried hard to be the center of the show - calling an amazingly inconsistent 49 fouls creating 56 free throws

[Dub]

Really fun day today at Carver Arena. That was the most vocal crowd we've had this year by far. Let's get this place rockin next yr.

[Braves2006]

Really fun day today at Carver Arena. That was the most vocal crowd we've had this year by far. Let's get this place rockin next yr.

I agree. Good game, fun to be at.

[bigjimmy]

The way it was going in the 2nd half I thought we were on our way to another one of those halves. I was driving up to Chicago and the radio signal cut out around 2:30 with us down 14 and I thought to myself, "At least I don't have to listen to another bad half of basketball. Imagine my surprise when I found out a half hour later that we won by 12. Wow! Great last 10 minutes. Definitely something to build on. I hope. Next step is to finally win back to back games. It's been 92 games overall and 58 games in the Mo Valley since BU won back to back games. Until that happens we'll be stuck in neutral. It's time to put it in overdrive.

[tornado]

DR reports that the reason Koch Bar did not play the first half (and he was very ineffective in 2nd half) was because of minor discipline issue for "team rules violation"

[wily coyote]

I realize Evansville is not very good but it was very encouraging to see the Braves turn in a 26 point turn around. Something we haven't seen in quite some time. DT is really starting to put his game together and our Freshmen guards show what's possible when we don't turn it over. Hopefully something to build on but being a life long Cub fan I'm going to be optimistic.

[basketball nut]

The score at
14:02 55-41
12:30 56-43
10:26 58-52
8:18 60-58
6:38 64-63
...then we took the lead at 5:51 66-64
4:09 stretched the lead to 71-66
had an 8 pt lead 76-68 at 2:09
and did not fold...

that was the best 10 minute stretch of the season...

We also had a 9-0 run from the 12 min mark in the 1st half 'til the 9 min mark..
FUN game to watch!

Darrell Brown, Jr. 22 pts
Donte Thomas & Jayden Hodgson 13 pts each
Hodgson also had 5 assists and ZERO turnovers and was 3-5 from the arc
Luuk van Bree had only 5 pts but excellent defense, 3 blocks, 7 rebounds, 6 assists and stayed out of foul trouble!!
Nate Kennell with foul trouble but hit a nice 3-pointer to key the 1st half run

Refs tried hard to be the center of the show - calling an amazingly inconsistent 49 fouls creating 56 free throws

This was a fun game but one big complaint was FREE THROWS. We at least finished strong and made them when we needed them most but 17-29 isn't acceptable and especially when 3 of those misses were the front end of a one and one. That was my frustration yesterday but hopefully it will get better. Remember free throws have cost us 3 wins and 2 of them in the Valley.

[wizard1]

Final Score:Bradley 84 E'ville 77.

Finally!...A great half w/ a good offense that worked and energized our players. We were able to free up our shooters(Hodgdon, Brown, D Lo) and we ran the base line for 3 options (Shoot a 3, pass inside, or drive on an inside screen).
D Lo is very effective shooting 3s because of these options. IMO our best line up is Hodgdon, Brown, D Lo, Thomas, and Bar w/ Van Bree as 6th man.
Again, players should understand and ACCEPT their role on the team. Clearly, Van Bree is not a game-time shooter- He is far too inconsistent. His role should be rebounding, defense, and shooting only from 12-15 ft. when he is open. It is very important to the success of this team the rest of this year and next year to get this done with Van Bree.
Hodgdon, Brown, D Lo, and Kennel should be our shooters and the offense should be built around getting them free for 3s and options.
Another observation...D Lo plays with great enthusiasm and energy and could be groomed as our floor leader for the remainder of this year and for next year. The other players seem to look up to him.
Hodgdon should be our primary ball handler since he has few turnovers and passes well. Browns role should be offense and scoring. This will force opponents to key on him and could disrupt their defense away from Brown and open up our 3 point opportunities.
One final note: We should play an 8 man rotation with the starters mentioned above plus Van Bree, Pittman, and Kennel. We should not over substitute so as to allow our on-court guys to get into a rhythm and not be continuously juggled in and out.
Wizard

[Dub]

To my eye, the two players we have with the most propensity to be an effective floor leader are Hodgson and Thomas. it will surprise me greatly if Hodgson does not assume that role in the next year or two and keep it until he graduates.

[AZ BU Fan]

There getting better all the time!

Dare to be great!

2 more MVC regular season wins are out there and would be a fantastic way
to enter MVC Tournament.

Go get them BU....

Finish strong and start prepping for your break out season 2017-18!

BUilding toward 2017-18 ....

[DeanMartin]

I realize Evansville is not very good but it was very encouraging to see the Braves turn in a 26 point turn around. Something we haven't seen in quite some time. DT is really starting to put his game together and our Freshmen guards show what's possible when we don't turn it over. Hopefully something to build on but being a life long Cub fan I'm going to be optimistic.

I am not getting to excited over the win, as this Evansville team would struggle in the Special Olympics right now! A loss would have been catastrophic so it's definitely better than a loss.

In this run of losing, Kennell has played way to much, we won't win in the MVC with him playing that much. DLO made a huge difference yesterday. Ideally Kennell is our 9th man off the bench, and we should be doing everything we can to get Hodgeson more and more shot attempts. He is far and away our best shooter.

I like Brown at PG, Hodgeson at shooting guard, Jo Jo at small forward, JT at the power forward and Bar at the center. Off the bench with , Pittman, DLO, van Bree, Kennell. DLO is much better than Kennell, hopefully he and Wardle have patched up their differences, lessons learned because he gives us a much better chance to win in Arch Madness. I also think Callum can help us in the post in small doses when Bar is struggling.

I'm not daring to be great yet, but would settle for average right now. Next year we talk about better than average, etc...

[Da Coach]

I normally do not care about spelling and punctuation in posts, so I will usually never correct people.
But the one exception is players' names. So forgive me, but it's Hodgson, not Hodgeson.

[BRADLEY FAN 49]

I am not getting to excited over the win, as this Evansville team would struggle in the Special Olympics right now! A loss would have been catastrophic so it's definitely better than a loss.

In this run of losing, Kennell has played way to much, we won't win in the MVC with him playing that much. DLO made a huge difference yesterday. Ideally Kennell is our 9th man off the bench, and we should be doing everything we can to get Hodgeson more and more shot attempts. He is far and away our best shooter.

I like Brown at PG, Hodgeson at shooting guard, Jo Jo at small forward, JT at the power forward and Bar at the center. Off the bench with , Pittman, DLO, van Bree, Kennell. DLO is much better than Kennell, hopefully he and Wardle have patched up their differences, lessons learned because he gives us a much better chance to win in Arch Madness. I also think Callum can help us in the post in small doses when Bar is struggling.

I'm not daring to be great yet, but would settle for average right now. Next year we talk about better than average, etc...

I couldn't disagree more i would like to have 5 Kennell's on the team.
Maybe you missed DLO 1 for 8 free throws.