Final score: Eastern Illinois 73 Bradley 66

[Da Coach]

Bradley's next game is Saturday, Dec. 15 at 7:00 PM in Carver Arena against the Eastern Illinois Panthers.
Bradley is 7-3, coming off their win at Little Rock. Eastern Illinois is 5-5 after their win Saturday (Dec. 8 ) at Western Illinois 74-67. It was their second win over Western Illinois this season.

This game is the 3rd of a 3-year series between Bradley and Eastern Illinois.
Bradley beat EIU 11/29/16 in Charleston- 87-83.
And Bradley won in Peoria on 12/1/17- 67-56.
They have faced each other 13 times previously, going back to their first meeting in the 1912-13 season. Bradley has an 8-5 advantage and has won the last 3 meetings.

Eastern Illinois was picked 7th out of 12 teams in the 2018-19 Ohio Valley Conference Preseason Poll-
http://ovcsports.com/news/2018/10/17...-the-year.aspx

The Panthers had one player voted on to the Preseason All Conference team- 5'7" senior guard Terrell Lewis. However, he has had a much slower than expected recovery from a torn ACL least season, and has played very limited minutes and appeared in only 2 games so far and has not played since Nov. 17.

They are coached by Jay Spoonhour in his 7th season. He is 84-111 at EIU, and 44-54 in 6 seasons of OVC play. He is the son of coaching legend Charlie Spoonhour.
https://www.sports-reference.com/cbb...tern-illinois/


EIU Schedule and Results- https://eiupanthers.com/schedule.aspx?schedule=258

TV: The game is on NBCSports Chicago and also on ESPN3.com- http://www.espn.com/watch/_/id/34605...ois-vs-bradley
Radio- WMBD 1470 AM and 100.3 FM, and online at www.1470wmbd.com
Live stats-
https://bradleybraves.com/sidearmsta...mary;team=away
Chat Room- www.chatzy.com/bradleyfans
Eastern Illinois basketball website- https://eiupanthers.com/index.aspx?path=mbball
Roster- https://eiupanthers.com/roster.aspx?path=mbball
Stats- https://eiu_ftp.sidearmsports.com/cu...9MBX_Stats.pdf

Their leading scorer is 6'4" sophomore starting guard Josiah Wallace (14.9 ppg). They have 3 other players who average double digits- 6'9" junior starting forward Rade Kukobat (10.5 ppg), who is also their leading rebounder with 5.8 rpg, 6'5" freshman guard Ben Harvey, who comes off the bench (10.5 ppg) and he shoots 48.5% from three, and 6'2" sophomore starting guard Mack Smith (10.4 ppg).


Bradley stats-
https://s3.amazonaws.com/sidearm.sit...dley_stats.pdf

[Go_Braves]

For me - it will be interesting to see if Bradley's play has developed any "rust" due to an 11 day (semester finals) layover. And I am trying to gauge Eastern Illinois who lost early in the season at IUPUI and recently at Chicago State - but since Eastern has won 2 games. This is the last home game with the students still on campus before winter break. I would really enjoy seeing "Ari" get some game time experience - but I realize it may still be too early for "Ari". A player like Ari maybe needed at Georgia Southern. So a lot to gauge. On paper Bradley should beat Eastern at home. For now I just hope Bradley does not come out "rusty". Go Braves ....

[Da Coach]

Eastern Illinois also has a little longer-than-usual layoff for their final exams. They played their last game this past Saturday, and don't play again until they play Bradley.

You are right about Eastern being somewhat of a Jekyll and Hyde team. In addition to losing to Chicago State, they lost by 44 points (104-66) AT HOME to Purdue Fort Wayne! Yet, they only lost by 12 points in a road game at Texas (RPI 40). Fort Wayne is just 4-6 against D1 teams, with an RPI of 207.
EIU's RPI is currently 282. It was at 295 before they beat Western Illinois Saturday.

[BUfan39]

Who else is ready to play a darn game! Go Braves!

[Da Coach]

Air Boy a is dressed and going through warmups. He's not expected to play, though.

[Da Coach]

Live stats link

https://bradleybraves.com/sidearmstats/mbball/summary;team=away

[Chibearsfan10125]

Boya makes his debut. So far no buckets, but has made a handful of free throws and blocked a shot.

[Da Coach]

Bradley loses to EIU 76-66
https://bradleybraves.com/sidearmsta...

[ghunt]

Embarrassing. Several steps backward the last few games. The little tournament in Cancun was not the NCAA guys. Get your heads screwed on right.

[Da Coach]

Not much to say that wasn't obvious. But I will say that though I am not an EIU fan, I have to give them credit. They did everything a team needs to do to win on the road against a bigger, and better opponent. They played extremely well, and had very few mistakes (only 9 turnovers for the game). They shot well (13-24 from three- 54.2%), They took advantage of what Bradley's defensive lapses gave them. And they made their free throws (12-15). Eastern Illinois deserved to win this game.

Official Box Score-
http://www.espn.com/mens-college-bas...ard/_/group/18

Bradley drops to 7-4 with their next game a tough road game Tuesday at Georgia Southern (7-3)-

https://gseagles.com/schedule.aspx?schedule=1235

[Go_Braves]

You phrase it very well and to the point Da Coach. The Braves team that defeated SMU and the next day Penn State must have left town. It has all been virtually down hill since the Cancun Classic and I take everything back following the Classic where I implied that Bradley basketball is back. This team has a ways to go.

[tornado]

hey, there's one good thing - that watching the MVC go 0-6 yesterday - encourages me that Bradley still has a decent shot at an NCAA bid if we can just play up to our potential

[Da Coach]

Did anyone else hear Coach Wardle repeatedly refer to the fans booing the team last night?
I heard a few boos directed at the officials who made some questionable calls, and maybe a few boos were directed at the final outcome, but I did not hear anyone booing the team.

I agree with Dave Reynolds in this article. I think Coach Wardle is just mistaken about the purpose of any boos, or he is using this issue to motivate his players-
Were the Braves booed off the court? That's debatable
https://www.pjstar.com/sports/201812...hats-debatable

[molar50]

Yes, I thought Wardle was wrong in saying the 'boos" were directed as our players. It was the officials that our fans booed, but I think EIU did out-play our team. There were a lot of mental errors, especially with Bradley having a 9 point lead in the first half and letting it get away. I wasn't particularly impressed with Boya. Maybe, he could have entered the game when we were up by 9. I thought Wardle took out Childs too early in the first half and he never got his rhythm back. Wardle owns this loss as much as the players. There is still time to rectify this team. There is talent to compete in the MVC.

[Go_Braves]

Well said.... As for Boya…. I have to give him some grace.... This was his first game.... I came in late and only watched the second half and saw where Boya had an opportunity to slam a dunk and he didn't he gingerly attempted a lay up and I think he missed.... He may be "initially" playing gingerly not wanting to re-injure anything. The speed of college basketball is much faster than high school - although that wasn't demonstrated by Bradley (or EIU) last night. When I read how the fans were looking forward to Boya - it may be me but I wonder if they were hoping for the second coming of Patrick O'Bryant. Well Patrick made "some noise" his freshman year - It wasn't until his sophomore year when Patrick really took off. Remember Donte Thomas took freshman Elijah Childs under his wing last year and showed him what it takes to play in the paint and above the rim in the Missouri Valley. It took Childs a while and Childs caught on and was instrumental in several later games especially during Bradley's win over Loyola. So give Boya some Grace and Time - it will take him some time to realize what its like to play in the paint and above the rim at the college level and to take it to the hole whenever the opportunity is there.