Final: Belmont 78 Bradley 76

[ManMythLegend]

Free throws…we knew it would cost this team a game at some point and it did.

I’m sure most of the attention will go to the decision to give Zek the ball, but my biggest question is why have Ville on Friberg on a huge possession? Put someone with length and athleticism that can bother him.

Wasn’t a terrible game, but it hurts bad considering it all but knocks us out of a chance at first. It’s what I said after Indiana State, we aren’t contenders still unless we won this and we are not. Three games back of Belmont essentially. This team took too long to come together and left themselves no room for error in a game like this. I think it’s fair to say the regular season has been a disappointment. The only hope is Arch Madness once again, and SIU and Belmont seem really tough to beat, especially probably having to play both in the tournament.

Agree with everything you said. It's mind boggling how poor of a free throw shooting team we have been for years. We also make some really poor decisions on crucial possessions which leads to turnovers or very low probability shots. I honestly can't remember a more frustrating team to watch.

It would take a miracle to win the regular season after today. Only hope we can continue to improve and make a run in STL, but as you said we likely have to go through SIU and Belmont. I have zero confidence that we can beat Belmont in the Lou.

Knock down a couple more free throws and play lock down D on Friberg late in the 2nd half and we are all singing a different tune.

[BUBraves2006]

TRAVELING! How can you blow that call in a tied game?

Also horrendous was when we were up four, Henry got obliterated twice on rebound putbacks with no calls, then Sheppard (sp?) gets the wind blown on him on the next possession and gets fouled. We should have been probably going up six and in a flash, the lead was gone.

Contrary to what others said, I'd LOVE to play these guys in STL. I am still convinced we are better than these guys and I hope we get a chance to prove it there. Very unlikely they can beat us three times in a row ...

[PattonMD]

On postgame coach said coaches and J HEN were trying to call time but refs did not see them. Zek too sped up and coach admitted Duke or Hick should have had the ball. He was really unhappy with our defense. The best home crowd in a long time.

How in the world do the refs miss the timeout? Every game ever played a timeout is called in that situation. They should have been looking for it. Terrible..

[PattonMD]

Of course it would have been highly unlikely that we would have scored anyway. But still.

[houstonbrave]

Not sure we can complain too much about our free throw percentage we were 17-22 for 77 percent. I’d always like higher but that is pretty good.

[Da Coach]

Coach Wardle talked about mistakes made in his post-game interview, including mistakes by the coaching staff. One mistake I think he was referring to was not putting Duke back in to play the point on the last full possession by Bradley. Zek has been good, but with the game tied and possibly the biggest possession of the game, you want your best point guard handling the ball. Unfortunately it lead to a turnover and gave Belmont plenty of time to score the winning basket.
Overall a great game between 2 good teams. I though the game mirrored the game in Nashville with Bradley pulling ahead late, then Belmont coming back, and winning it in the final seconds.
Bradley is not out of the MVC race, but they have little margin for error from now on. And it makes to 2 games against SIU even more important.

Final box score- https://bradleybraves.com/sports/men...boxscore/21522

Attendance 5,854

[Classof77]

That sure looked like traveling from my seats. But that didn't cost us the game. First time we played Belmont, I thought they could only beat us one way. With three's. Tonight, I thought the same thing, and we allowed them to do it to us again.

Belmont's record is no fluke. That's a good team, well coached.

Thrilling game to watch, heart breaking as it was. Nice to see fans in the stands.

[Bradley3342]

If they are going to change the rule, change the rule. It was not a euro step. It was 2.5 steps, which is a travel.

Absolutely! Not only did he take 2.5 steps he drug his foot too. How do 3 refs miss that call. No excuse.

[bigjimmy]

Just another frustrating effort today. Always seemed to be a step behind in defending the 3 and Wardle confirmed as much after the game. How and why the guys don’t talk on defense is beyond me. They’ve played enough games to not still have that happen. On offense we went inside to Rienk early and often we stopped. He rarely got the ball down low in the second half. That’s a poor coaching decision. Duke got dominated by the Belmont point guard as he was quicker and more physical. But we also don’t try to get him open. And as good as we have been in scoring off of timeouts during most of the game how can we continually mess up in end of the half and the end of the game situations. Granted the players have to execute but it’s on the coaches to put them in the right situations. I’ve always been very impressed by Belmont and the way they run their system and they get players who fit their system. I’m still trying to figure out what’s the system we have.

[braves16]

TRAVELING! How can you blow that call in a tied game?

Also horrendous was when we were up four, Henry got obliterated twice on rebound putbacks with no calls, then Sheppard (sp?) gets the wind blown on him on the next possession and gets fouled. We should have been probably going up six and in a flash, the lead was gone.

Contrary to what others said, I'd LOVE to play these guys in STL. I am still convinced we are better than these guys and I hope we get a chance to prove it there. Very unlikely they can beat us three times in a row ...

If we don't guard the 3 better than we have both times, I believe they would beat us for the 3rd time.

[BUfan14]

Not sure we can complain too much about our free throw percentage we were 17-22 for 77 percent. I’d always like higher but that is pretty good.

I agree as a blanket statement for the game. But we missed several big ones late that cost us. Mostly from a fifth year senior. Now Jashon played one of his better games I thought, so it’s not to disparage him, but point stands we don’t seem to make big free throws very often. Outside of maybe Malevy and Ville, I don’t trust this team at the line in a big spot. That is a problem when competing against better teams. Late free throws matter.

I still say having Ville on Friberg on that huge possession to tie it was the bigger mistake that cost us, but being a poor free throw shooting late is a concern for this team, that now probably has to make a March run to win anything big.

I think our regular season championship hopes are on life support. It’s still possible I suppose, but it certainly wouldn’t be the betting favorite. Do we really think this team can beat SIU twice, not fumble at all against Drake, at UNI, or MSU? That’s a tall order based on what we’ve seen so far. I think we can lose maybe once more and still be in it for the regular season championship. Belmont doesn’t look like a team that will cough up an essentially three game lead either.

This game really isn’t my concern though, as it was competitive throughout and we lost. It’s the ones we threw away earlier in the year that left no margin for error to lose this sort of game.

SIU is back as a contender again. Every team outside of Evansville and Valpo has seemed to make a run at the title in the last 10 years. Not Bradley. When will it be us?

[Tommy]

I think it’s time to accept the fact that we are a perennial middle of the pack team, most likely another 4th place finish. We just don’t seem to have what it takes to win out during the regular season so we’re back to hoping to pull off the MVC tourney win. In the end, if we get to the NCAA tourney I’ll be happy, but I’ll always dream of the day we are a 23+ win team and a regular at large or even better, ranked team. Probably a pipe dream.

Looks like Belmont might be the new Loyola. Join conference and dominate. I sure hope that’s not the case, but they are well coached and seem capable. Talent wise, we seem to be much better but they somehow beat us twice.

Agree with previous statement in this thread and hope we meet Belmont in the tourney as I don’t believe they are better than us and we all know it’s hard to beat good teams 3 times in a season. BW always has us ready come tourney time, just wish he’d figure out the regular season and get the monkey off his back.

Disappointing loss and quite a roller coaster ride we’re on. Let’s bounce back and whoop up on ISU Red.

[Bradley8792]

Belmont, 14 points off turnovers. Once again, there’s your game.

[BUBraves2006]

If we don't guard the 3 better than we have both times, I believe they would beat us for the 3rd time.

I might have given you that in the first game, but the reality is that the game should have been won at the 4:30 mark when we went up 6, 73-67. (Nothing before this point really matters all that much because it was just generally a seesaw game.)

After that moment we had the following:

• A poor foul on Rienk guarding Sheppard on a bad switch which turned into 2 FTs (73-69)
• Missed Zek 3, I believe it was open? (Call this out if I am recalling incorrectly)
• A poor foul on Duke, guarding a post guy again - not necessarily blaming him but why did he have no help or even ever get put in that spot? (Lucky, Belmont misses front end of FT)
• The egregious possession where Henry gets fouled on the rebound and the putback with no call.
• Terrible foul call against J'Shon on the other end, Sheppard makes 2 more (73-71)
• Mast gets a good look in the post, but misses
• Fast break basket to tie it at 73
• After we make 3 of 4 FTs to go back up 3, Friberg hits a 3 on a contested shot
• Zek's unfortunate but bad TO
• Blatant traveling but shot goes in we lose.

Look at all the key possessions there and I really don't account any of that to poor 3-pt defense. Mental errors both offensively and defensively, a few bad referee breaks and Belmont making few mistakes themselves led to the turnaround. You close the game better, regardless of how we got to that point, it's a win.

[BUfan14]

I think it’s time to accept the fact that we are a perennial middle of the pack team, most likely another 4th place finish.

Agree with previous statement in this thread and hope we meet Belmont in the tourney as I don’t believe they are better than us and we all know it’s hard to beat good teams 3 times in a season. BW always has us ready come tourney time, just wish he’d figure out the regular season and get the monkey off his back.

Ya, it’s puts it in more perspective when we realize we have went 4-4 in the regular conference season. Luckily we caught UNI and MSU when we did cause they are playing better now. After losing four straight Indiana State seems like a “they are who we thought they were” team more and more too, so that win is looking less impressive. We don’t really have a win against a good team, maybe Indiana State, since conference started back up.

As far as facing Belmont again, who would we trust at the end of the game? Our guys or their guys. Friberg could sink a three anywhere at any point. We don’t have that. We can’t even be trusted to make key free throws.

This team can compete with anyone on any given night, but we have yet to show the will to win that makes me think we will make a March run. There is still time, but we are running out of time soon. The regular season ship has most likely passed though, and I’m really bummed about that.