Bradley splits 2 games against SIU

[Da Coach]

Bradley hosts Southern Illinois for two games Saturday, Feb. 6 and Sunday, Feb. 7 at Carver Arena. Both games start at 3:00 pm.
The Saturday, Feb. 6 game is on the MVC TV Network (NBCSports Chicago and FoxSports Midwest), and on ESPN3 (with blackouts).
The Sunday, Feb. 7 game is only on ESPN3.

Chat room- http://us21.chatzy.com/bradleyfans
Live stats- https://bradleybraves.com/sidearmstats/mbball/summary

Bradley is 9-10, 3-7 and SIU is right behind them in the MVC standings at 8-6, 2-6.

SIU website- https://siusalukis.com/sports/mens-basketball
SIU stats- https://s3.amazonaws.com/sidearm.sit...6/SIU_Team.pdf

SIU's leading scorer Marcus Domask has missed their last 4 games with a foot injury. He says he feels better, but he has not yet been cleared to return to action and his status for the Bradley series is undetermined-

https://thesouthern.com/sports/college/salukimania/mvc-notebook-domask-feels-good-but-status-still-unknown-for-bradley/article_fcc31e6d-9407-5e19-9f30-98e4ae4700cd.html

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

There has not been any new updates regarding Ari Boya. Let's hope he can return.

[bigjimmy]

Team wise the guys need to focus only on the next game. Can't afford to look ahead but as fans that's what we do so here's my take. To avoid the play in game(If there's one) we have to finish no worse than 8-10 in the Mo Valley. Since the 01-02 season when the conference expanded to 10 teams there's only been 2 season, 03-04 and 16-17, that a team finished in 6th with a 7-11 record so it behooves us first, to end this losing streak, and second, get everyone on the same page at the same time. Times running out.

[Big Mike]

Dave Eminian reports no Boya this weekend with the return of McAdoo to the team and available this weekend.

[Da Coach]

Pregame article from BradleyBraves.com

https://bradleybraves.com/news/2021/2/5/mens-basketball-braves-host-southern-illinois-saturday-and-sunday.aspx

[Da Coach]

Sean East not playing today due to a health issue.

[LittleBrave]

Sean East not playing today due to a health issue.

Really hope he’s not in doghouse still, cause we look lost without East on offense!

[Big Mike]

Good to stop the skid! Good to get McAdoo back....made a difference....also good to see Nolan have a great game. Nice FT shooting by Braves only missing 1.

[Da Coach]

Bradley wins!
Final score- Bradley 74 SIU 66

https://bradleybraves.com/sidearmstats/mbball/media

Terrific game by Terry Nolan, Jr. He had 21 points, 6 rebounds, and 3 assists. Elijah Childs ended with 15 points, 12 rebounds, 4 steals, and 3 blocks.
Rienk Mast was 3-5 from three for 9 points; Ville had 7 points, Ja'Shon had 6 points, but played only 8 minutes because of fouls, Kingsby 5 points, McAdoo, who started and played 32 minutes, mostly at point guard, had 4 points. Hannah had 2 points, and 5 big rebounds, and Jayson Kent had a huge 3-pointer. His three was the only basket Bradley scored in the final 4:33 of the game!
Bradley was 18-19 from the free throw line for the game. SIU was 11-19

Big win for the Braves. They play again vs. SIU Sunday at 3:00 pm.

[bigjimmy]

Nice to get the Gorilla off of our backs. Still we need to value the ball better on offense but we also have a bad tendency to not go meet the ball either. We did have 14 assists, on 22 made baskets, and 11 turnovers. Hopefully tomorrow is wash, rinse and repeat.

[Da Coach]

Really hope he's not in doghouse still, cause we look lost without East on offense!

Wardle said it was a "health related". He is not shy about saying if it was a rules violation or other issue, so I would guess it isn't the "doghouse". Let's hope he is OK to play tomorrow.

[Big Mike]

According to Eminian....East out for the series against SIU.

[Da Coach]

There was one other player who was available to play for the first time on the Bradley bench today-

https://twitter.com/icetimecleve/status/1358168964845752326

Bradley sophomore Riley Burger was in uniform on the bench for Bradley.
Let's hope he gets the chance to play a bunch in upcoming games.

[Dub]

I am now 100% convinced now that it is more fun to win than to simply compete hard.

[Tommy]

Interesting game note:
Personal fouls: BU-17, SIU-19
only the second game this year where we had fewer than our opponent. No coincidence we won. That, along with making our free throws made the difference.

I even think the refs gave us a few breaks in a few instances. Has not seemed that way during the 6 game skid we just escaped from.

Better days ahead.

[LittleBrave]

That was an ugly game for February when we’re supposed to be sharper.

SIU is not very good and we escaped this one.
I expect better tomorrow, but I don’t see this current BU team being better than the Top 5 right now.

Without East, the offensive flow is bad.