Final score: Bradley 72 Indiana State 61

[Da Coach]

Bradley is now 16-9 overall, and 7-5 in the MVC. They play Indiana State Wednesday, Feb. 12, at 7:00 pm.
Note that this is one of only 2 weekday games that starts at 7:00 pm, instead of 6:00 pm.

The game will be on the MVC-TV Network, which includes NBCSports Chicago Plus Network (channels 102 & 285 on Xfinity) and on FoxSports Midwest Network (channels 57, 519, & 959 on Xfinity). It also includes FoxSports Indiana and FoxSports Kansas City, and ESPN+ for those outside the areas covered by those cable networks.

Indiana State is 14-9 and 7-5 in the MVC. They are coming off a 74-67 loss Saturday at Illinois State.
Indiana State is tied with Bradley for 4th place-

Live Stats- https://bradleybraves.com/sidearmstats/mbball/summary
Chat Room- http://www.chatzy.com/524398219675
Indiana State website- https://gosycamores.com/sports/mens-basketball

Indiana State stats- https://s3.amazonaws.com/sidearm.sit..._Stats_33_.pdf
Bradley stats- https://s3.amazonaws.com/sidearm.sit...dley_stats.pdf

MVC overall stats- http://www.mvc.org/mbb/stats/CONFLDRS.HTM
MVC games only stats- http://www.mvc.org/mbb/stats/CONFONLY.HTM

Bradley lost to Indiana State on January 25 in Terre Haute- 61-53

https://s3.amazonaws.com/sidearm.sites/bradley.sidearmsports.com/documents/2020/1/25/Indiana_State_61_Bradley_53.pdf

Indiana State is an excellent 3-point shooting team. They shoot 39.1% from three as a team, which is tied for 8th in Division I.
Their leading scorer is Tyreke Key at 16.7 ppg and he shoots 40.0% from three. He is 3rd in the MVC in scoring behind A.J. Green and Javon Freeman-Liberty.-

http://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/statistics/player/_/stat/scoring-per-game/year/2020/seasontype/2/group/18

5'10" senior point guard Jordan Barnes is a 3-year starter, and averages 12.7 ppg and shoots 40.2% from three.
They start 2 pretty good freshmen- 6'8" forward Jake LaRavia, a former Bradley recruit who is 3rd on the team in scoring with an average of 8.8 ppg, and 6'7" center Tre Williams who is a good defender who averages 7.6 ppg and 3.9 rpg.
And their 5th starter has alternated between 6'4" sophomore shooting guard Cooper Neese (8.2 ppg, 38.4% from three), a Butler transfer, and 6'6" senior shooting guard Christian Williams (5.2 ppg and 42.3% from three), an Iowa transfer and former Bradley recruit from Decatur St. Theresa.
They do not get a lot of scoring from their bench.

Bradley is #1 in the MVC with 3-point defense (29.4%), so can they contain the Sycamores' three point shooters?
Bradley's overall record against Indiana State is 53-38 all-time, and 28-9 all-time in Carver Arena.
Bradley won last season in Peoria (2/9/19) 96-67.

https://bradleybraves.com/news/2019/2/9/mens-basketball-braves-dominate-indiana-state-96-67.aspx

[Da Coach]

Reminder- tonight's game is on the MVC-TV Network- which includes NBCSports Chicago Plus Network (channels 102 & 285 on Xfinity) and on FoxSports Midwest Network (channels 57, 519, & 959 on Xfinity). It also includes FoxSports Indiana and FoxSports Kansas City, and the FoxSports Go app. Plus it is on ESPN+ for those outside the areas covered by those cable networks.

Also note that it is a 7:00 pm game, not 6:00 pm. It is one of only 2 weekday games this season that starts at 7:00 pm.

Go Bradley!

[bigjimmy]

Take care of business on the home court and we finish no worse than 10-8. That’s why this game is a must win. We just haven’t played well enough on the road to be able to concede any home games. TCB BOYS! GET ER DONE!

[Da Coach]

Rienk Mast taking shots a couple hours before tonight's game (thanks to Bradley Scout Sports)-
https://twitter.com/ScoutSportsDesk/...31919237976066

[Tommy]

And Nate dunked in pre-game warmups to a roaring cheer from the team. I think that may be the first time he’s ever dunked it.

[Time Out]

Nice win for the Braves, Elijah had another great game. On to SIU with some energy!

[Da Coach]

Big win. Bradley 72 Indiana State 61
https://bradleybraves.com/sidearmsta...edia;team=home

Attendance 5,023

[algotrader]

We seem to injure a lot of Indiana State players.

[Tommy]

The Good: Great game, and everybody contributed, and my highlight of the game had to be the back to back blocks by Ari, followed closely by the alley oop to Eli!

The Bad: Free throw shooting was abysmal. Luckily we sank them at the end of the game.

The Ugly: The tall ref was brutal. I hate to keep bringing up the refereeing, but there had to be around 25 fouls called in the 2nd half, and that's more than one per minute. In my opinion, that's just taking it too far, and at some point you've got to allow SOME contact. He was literally blowing the whistle in anticipation of the contact in the 2nd half. It was very disappointing, because the first half officiating seemed to let them play.

We play better when we have a rhythm going, and all the foul calls really hinder that. Luckily, Nate finally found his groove and we FINALLY started making some free throws to end the game.

At the end of the day, with SIU and Drake both losing, this turned out to be a really good day for BU. Let's keep it rolling this Saturday, boys!

[Da Coach]

Official box score-
https://s3.amazonaws.com/sidearm.sit...a_State_61.pdf

Elijah Childs- 19 points, 7 rebounds, 1 assist, 2 steals
Darrell Brown- 13 points, 1 rebound, 2 assists, and 1 steal
Ville Tahvanainen- 6 points, 1 steal

Those 3 players did not play the last time Bradley played Indiana State (Jan. 25 in Terre Haute- BU lost 61-53).
That is 38 points, 8 rebounds, 3 assists, and 4 steals that made a huge difference tonight.

Bradley also got nice games from Danya Kingsby (10 pts, 4 reb, 3 assists), Koch Bar (4 pts, 5 reb, nice defense), Ari Boya (5 pts, 6 reb, 3 blks), Ja'Shon Henry (4 pts, 5 reb), Nate Kennell (11 pts, 3 reb, 3 assts)
Only 7 turnovers for the game & great defense on the Indiana State guards.
Bradley needs to keep the momentum rolling at SIU on Saturday afternoon.

Is anyone going to Carbondale? There are plenty of tickets available-

https://ev3.evenue.net/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/SEGetEventInfo?ticketCode=GS%3ASIU%3AMB1920%3AMB14%3A&linkID=siu&shopperContext=&pc=&caller=&appCode=&groupCode=&cgc=

(Bradley bench is in front of section 102)

[Classof77]

Loved those two back to back blocks by Ari. And surprised he didn't get T'ed up for taunting when he shook his head so demonstrably at the Indiana State player after the first one. Especially with the refs calling everything else in sight. Good "must win" for the team. We played well when we had to.

[bigjimmy]

1st half was an enjoyable game to watch as there were just 8 foul calls which allowed both teams to go up and down the court. Then the 2nd half happened and it was as if the refs got a call from the Valley office and said "You guys have some catching up to do". We hit enough shots and FT's in the last few minutes and we were allowed to play enough defense to pull away with another home W. Have a chance to get into 3rd with a win in Carbondale. Let's do it boys! GET ER DONE!

[LittleBrave]

Biggest win for us this season IMO.
Now let's get the Salukis on Saturday! So this NEXT game will be our biggest one yet!
Gonna be tough though as the Top 6 teams in the Valley have lost a TOTAL of 2 HOME games in league play!! Wow!

Great game by Eli - so fun to watch, and DB played great even though a quiet 13.
Ja'Shon seems to be a little quieter now with contributions from other big guys.
He's still a future star for BU.

GO BraVeS!!

[LittleBrave]

I've noticed since the Loyola game a couple weeks ago that the defenses are tightening up bigtime and it's more physical in the 2nd half of the Valley season.
So hard to manufacture points, so getting 70+ ,as good as the Indy St. defense was, is pretty impressive.
No way we break 60 though without Eli, who just makes it seem too easy sometimes. LOL

[Dub]

......So this NEXT game will be our biggest one yet!.....

Exactly. When you try to predict wins and losses out into the future schedule, it generally ends in despair. Take 'em one at a time boys.