Final score: Bradley 50 SIU 48

[Da Coach]

Bradley victorious! Final score- Bradley 50 SIU 48
Stats- https://siusalukis.com/sidearmstats/mbball/media

Rienk Mast with 13 points, 7 rebounds
Ja'Shon Henry 12 points, 5 rebounds
Zek Montgomery 9 points
Connor Hickman 9 points

Bradley is now 14-4 and alone in 1st place! (for now)

[Southside]

Again…when Hickman or Ville are a legit scoring threat, this team is really hard to beat.

Did SIU have a TO at the end?

[LittleBrave]

I can’t remember being that up and down watching a Braves game in a LONG time.
Superb defense especially by Bradley, but by both teams.

How about our mental toughness! Never let SIU get any momentum. We wanted it and didn’t back down!!

I almost looked away when Reink hoisted that 3-ball in the final BU possession. But it went down!!

Our misses from the charity stripe almost killled our chances - really poor.

JaShon and Zek played great, and Connor started out strong to set the tone.

Proud of our BRAVES though!

[Big Mike]

Totally agree on FT ahooting...horrendous to say the least.....BUT FOR NOW ENJOYING 1ST PLACE...

[Da Coach]

Again…when Hickman or Ville are a legit scoring threat, this team is really hard to beat.

Did SIU have a TO at the end?

Pretty sure they did. But some coaches don't like to call one there, thinking it give the defense the advantage.
But they sure should have gotten a better shot than they got with 4.1 seconds left.

[Stryker]

I can’t remember being that up and down watching a Braves game in a LONG time.
Superb defense especially by Bradley, but by both teams.

How about our mental toughness! Never let SIU get any momentum. We wanted it and didn’t back down!!

I almost looked away when Reink hoisted that 3-ball in the final BU possession. But it went down!!

Our misses from the charity stripe almost killled our chances - really poor.

JaShon and Zek played great, and Connor started out strong to set the tone.

Proud of our BRAVES though!

Haha did you not watch the ISU/BU game at Carver this year??

I would have sworn the refs weren't going to let BU win this game no matter what with the way the game was being called. All I've seen for 2 years in Henry getting smashed and hacked under the basket with no calls and then ticky tacky stuff on the other end.

[BUfan14]

Hickman and Montgomery played pretty well. I said this about Hick earlier in the year, and between him, Deen, and Montgomery who are all pretty good shooters, why can't they shoot better from the line as guards? Jashon has gotten worse as a free throw shooter over his Bradley career, though he helped keep us in this game when everyone was struggling so it was worth the trade off today. Gave me a heart attack not making at least one of those last two though. Fortunately SIU shot just as bad from the line.

Mast has struggled a bit in close out situations this year with his shot, and didn't have his best game, but that game winning shot was a huge one today! Big time shot! Great defense as a whole today, and Leons should be DPOY no doubt to me. He's outstanding on that end. With really no one outside of maybe Jashon (minus free throws) playing their best offensive game to still get a big road win was huge.

Now how about we show off some offense Wednesday and blow that game out, cause this one was stressful. Maybe spend all week just shooting free throws? Why are we so bad at it? It is mind blowing. Huge, huge win today though, nice job on defense boys!

[Da Coach]

Haha did you not watch the ISU/BU game at Carver this year??

I would have sworn the refs weren't going to let BU win this game no matter what with the way the game was being called. All I've seen for 2 years in Henry getting smashed and hacked under the basket with no calls and then ticky tacky stuff on the other end.

Yes, totally agree. There were SIU fouls on nearly every Bradley possession that weren't called. I try to avoid complaining about officiating when Bradley wins, but that was unbelievably inconsistent.

8 in a row!!

[braves16]

Again…when Hickman or Ville are a legit scoring threat, this team is really hard to beat.

Did SIU have a TO at the end?

They had 2 left.

[Classof77]

I always say when you don't make free throws you don't deserve to win. But I'll take this one. Games like this I need to have an AED next to me.

[LittleBrave]

Haha did you not watch the ISU/BU game at Carver this year??

I DID indeed! That was the worst effort by the Braves all season that I have seen, and 1st place was seemingly not in our minds at that time after the Belmont loss the game prior.

We played our guts out today in Carbondale, so would have been a shame to let that slip away b/c of poor FT shooting.

[braves16]

Yes, totally agree. There were SIU fouls on nearly every Bradley possession that weren't called. I try to avoid complaining about officiating when Bradley wins, but that was unbelievably inconsistent.

8 in a row!!

DC, I said the Salukis would start hand checking us during warmups and it didn't stop.

[LittleBrave]

In regards to the free throws, it seems the guys miss 80% of them hitting the back of the rim - either get some more arch or take a little off.

[PhiAlphaBoy]

Maybe spend all week just shooting free throws? Why are we so bad at it? It is mind blowing. Huge, huge win today though, nice job on defense boys!

Wardle has previously said that the players practice free throws in practice. The problem for college players is that there are only so many hours in the week for practice and much of practice needs to be devoted to preparing offensively and defensively for the next game. I think the real problem is that we just don't recruit great shooters.

[Da Coach]

Bradley victorious! Final score- Bradley 50 SIU 48
Stats- https://siusalukis.com/sidearmstats/mbball/media

Rienk Mast with 13 points, 7 rebounds
Ja'Shon Henry 12 points, 5 rebounds
Zek Montgomery 9 points
Connor Hickman 9 points

Interesting similarity with the SIU-Bradley game in Peoria back on Feb.1. Bradley won that game 62-50-
In that game, the top scorers were-
Ja'Shon Henry 13 points, 2 rebounds
Rienk Mast- 12 points, 9 rebounds
Zek Montgomery- 10 points
Duke Deen- 10 points