Final score: Bradley 77 MSU 68

[tornado]

Missouri State led wire to wire in beating us down in Springfield,
plus we lose our point guard & leading scorer right before the game...
then we have a stall coming out in the 2nd half and get down 9...and I am sure a lot of Bradley fans were worried...

BUT kudos to our guys and our coaches...
we not only came back but we blew by them and outscored them 44-26 over the last 15 minutes - even tho they kinda "shot the lights out" from the 3 pt arc (48%)

We held Alize Johnson under his scoring average and WAY under his rebounding average.
Alex Foster helped us and Nate Kennell played big (12 pts/8 assists) while Jayden Hodgson (10 pts/6 assists) sat with fouls.

[molar50]

This was a nice win for this team. This team was down 9 points early in the second half and came back strong to take the lead. It would have been easy to give up for several reasons. Missouri State kept hitting 3 pointers and shot better at the 3 than the 2 point field goals. MS scored a 3 pointer with no time on the clock at the end of the second half. It seemed as the refs gave most ofl the calls to MS. Nate Kennell was mugged at times and got cut above the eye and couldn't get the ref's call in his favor. DLO was called for a foul when the MS player tripped over his foot, which was stationary. It seemed as if our guys would get called for a foul for a ticky-tack minor contact and the MS guys would not get called for strong contact against our guys. I do not know why Jayson got teed up by the ref after hitting his 3 pointer. I thought it would be tough to win without D Brown tonight. Nate looked tired and had to play a lot of minutes, but he did very well. This was definitely a team win and it is encouraging to see this team improve this late in the season. This gives the fans more hope for next season. I hope they can win at Drake.

[LittleBrave]

Little concerned about Pitt-bull.

Just 6 minutes tonight? I thought he played pretty well too.

Anyone know what the deal is with that?

He is one of my favorite Braves.

[Da Coach]

Little concerned about Pitt-bull.

Just 6 minutes tonight? I thought he played pretty well too.

Anyone know what the deal is with that?

He is one of my favorite Braves.

Pittman played only 6 minutes and made a bad turnover each of the couple times he came into the game. Coach Wardle became visibly upset and pulled him out immediately. After the second turnover, he did not re-enter the game.

[bigjimmy]

Ding Dong the back to back games streak is DEAD! A gritty gutty effort by the guys tonight. Would prefer that we don't have to keep coming back from a double digit 2nd half deficit but seeing our toughness and poise down the stretch the last 2 games is really encouraging to see. Now hopefully we can build on these last 2 games and take our act on the road at Drake.

[molar50]

I looked at some of my posts 2 years ago at the end of February, 2015 and the posts about a new president, new AD, and new coach. There was a lot of discussion about loss of season ticket holders, no-shows, apathy, and perhaps the end of Bradley basketball at Div I. I feel a lot better about the future tonight for Bradley (and not just men's basketball) than 2 years ago.

[tornado]

the loyal core of 5,000-6,000 BU fans is still there and showed it last night..

the pregame party which was not well publicized, was absolutely packed with enthusiastic fans talking about how good things look for the future and banking on a win vs. Missouri State...
there wasn't a hint of the dismal, pessimistic sense that I felt for 4 years between 2011-2015... it was frankly amazing how powerful all those longtime fans' loyalty is...
and Chris Reynolds sees it...read all these tweets - amazing how much he acknowledges the fans - unlike the former AD who ripped into the fans for being impatient and not understanding

https://twitter.com/ChrisReynoldsAD/status/834624630950334469

https://twitter.com/ChrisReynoldsAD/status/834612178720268290

https://twitter.com/ChrisReynoldsAD/status/834613649524264960

https://twitter.com/ChrisReynoldsAD/status/834627460423614464

https://twitter.com/ChrisReynoldsAD/status/834638212672929792

https://twitter.com/ChrisReynoldsAD/status/834723945098141696

https://twitter.com/ChrisReynoldsAD/status/833096578990759937

[Da Coach]

...
the pregame party which was not well publicized, was absolutely packed with enthusiastic fans...

Yes, here is the pregame article on the Bradley website, which never even mentioned the Braves Club pregame party-

http://www.bubraves.com/news/2017/2/21/mens-basketball-bradley-hosts-missouri-state-in-carver-finale.aspx?path=mbball

I am not sure why Bradley did not seem to want to publicize this event very much. I spoke with several fans in the arena who did not know anything about it. It would help to mention it in the pregame article.
Even a search for Braves Club activities leads to this page, which lists a bunch of pre-game parties, pre-game luncheons, and other activities for the 2016-17 season, but again completely omits any mention of the pre-game party last night-

http://www.bradleybravesclub.com/activities

If any fans were there, how did you hear about it?

[tornado]

I had it written on my calendar...it was announced early in the season
I also recall an e mail that noted the Feb. 22 date, but occasionally those emails land in my spam folder so some people could have missed it.

http://www.bradleybravesclub.com/activities/braves-club-pre-game-parties

http://www.bradleybravesclub.com/home

[Dub]

The most impressive thing to me from last night was the job Donte and others did on Johnson. They neutralized him almost completely, and he was visibly frustrated all night... there was some player to player friendly fire on MSUs squad regarding their inability to get him the ball, etc. good stuff! Great milestone crossed last night

[wizard1]

Final Score: Bradley 77 MSU 68

A great win and a strong indication that the BB program may be on the road to recovery. Players were together and BW did a very good coaching job especially with D. Brown out for the game.
Wiz

[tornado]

The most impressive thing to me from last night was the job Donte and others did on Johnson. ...

yup, Donte is our Charles Oakley - classic blue collar, hard worker, gives his all, very underappreciated..

Here's Donte's production the past half-dozen games
It's not always eye-popping, but it is consistently good production...
- 3-4, 6 pts, 6 rebs, 2 assr, only 1 foul
- 6-10, 13 pts, 13 rebs, 1 blk
- 2-4, 7 pts, 4 rebs, 1 asst, 1 blk
- 3-5, 7 pts, 7 rebs, 3 asst
- 4-9, 13 pts, 9 rebs
- 7-9, 19 pts, 10 rebs, 1 asst