Final score- Xavier 51 Bradley 50

[Da Coach]

Bradley (1-0) plays Thursday, Nov. 26, vs. Xavier (1-0) in the second day of the Xavier Invitational at the Cintas Center in Cincinnati.
Bradley beat Toledo 61-59 Wednesday-

https://s3.amazonaws.com/sidearm.sites/goxavier.com/documents/2020/11/25/Report_319813_2020_11_25_144502.pdf

Xavier easily beat Oakland 101-49-

https://s3.amazonaws.com/sidearm.sites/goxavier.com/documents/2020/11/25/1796324.pdf

Xavier played only 8 players despite the huge lead they had throughout the game today because they have at least 3 players quarantining due to being exposed to Covid.

Their leading scorer (21 points) and rebounder (12 rebounds) was 6'9" sophomore Zach Freemantle.

This game is on cable channel FS1 (on Xfinity it is channels 551 & 946).

[Da Coach]

Under the radar game?

https://twitter.com/JonRothstein/status/1331918119556694023

[Bradleyfan1]

So excited to finally see this group today. Have to defend and shoot the 3 better today. Make sure they know early that we arnt Oakland and this will not be a repeat of yesterday.

[Tommy]

I think we shoot much better today. We typically have shot poorly for the first game of tournaments we travel for, so hoping they’ve acclimated to their surroundings and will show much more offensively.

[Bradleyfan1]

Defensive rebounding will be key, one and done. Limit the turnovers obviously that was a problem. Find a flow.

[Bradley3342]

So far the defense has been great! Our shots have to start falling at some point though.

[Da Coach]

Bradley had the chance to win the game, but tough break for Terry Nolan as the FT wouldn't fall.
Bradley again did not shoot well- just 33.3% overall (21-63), but the 3-pointers were a little better- 6-16 (37.5%).
Rebounding in the 2nd half was an issue. Bradley outrebounded Xavier in the 1st half 24-22. But BU was outrebounded in the 2nd half 16-25.
Bradley's defense was terrific. They held Xavier to about 1/2 as many points (51) as they scored yesterday (101)
I am confident the shooting will get better. Xavier is a good team.
Lets win tomorrow and return home 2-1!

Stats-
https://s3.amazonaws.com/sidearm.sit...26/1781992.PDF

[Chibearsfan10125]

It’s a tough loss to swallow knowing we had an amazing chance to win it, but I’m proud of how hard the team fought today. If we play Defense like that, there aren’t going to be very many teams on our schedule that can beat us. We have to shoot better, but that will come. Terry hit another big shot that could’ve won the game if we get a stop at the end. Yes it’s a little disheartening he missed the front of end of a 1 and 1 to tie the game, but he’s going to be very good for us. If Eli doesn’t get in foul trouble early, I think he probably win. Oh well. Let’s get a win tomorrow and head home after a 2-1 tournament.

[bigjimmy]

A tough loss. These early games against good opponents are going to be tough but if we'd have done a couple things we'd be 2-0. One thing was not getting Eli the ball in the last 7:00 minutes. He had 1 shot and really didn't touch the ball on offense in that period. Just can't do that and expect to win. 2nd thing is have to make our FT's. Granted we only shot 6 but only made 2. Little things like that in a tight game usually make the difference. I think we're going to see this years team take some time to get their bearings as you have 3 guys who haven't played in 2 years (Mast, McAdoo and Nolan) and the newcomers (East and the freshmen) trying to mesh with the holdovers. Once they do and we'll have something special. I'm sure they all feel frustrated about a game they felt like they should have won but hopefully they will have a good Thanksgiving meal, take that frustration and put it onto Oakland tomorrow.

[Dub]

I’m sufficiently recovered now to comment. This Bradley team looks to be every bit as good as last year’s and may have a higher ceiling. That was some hard nosed effort against a very high quality opponent. If we can play d and rebound like that in valley play, look out. Really hurts not to win that one with the effort and position we put ourselves into.

[Tommy]

Great comments. Was definitely disappointed we didn’t win, but as has already been pointed out, we play great defense and had our opportunities. Agree with Jimmy on the free throws, but when you only get 6 in a game, it’s hard to complain about the percentage.

Biggest takeaway for me was that we played a very good Big East team and could have easily won. If we can compete with the Big East, we can compete with just about anyone.

Excited to see this team improve throughout the season.