Final score: Bradley 86 Valparaiso 61

[Big Mike]

Always happy to get a Valley road W....mrgreen:

[Da Coach]

Not hurt

[egib52]

Not hurt

Ok, that's what I was assuming.

[Big Mike]

Glad for Hickman big game but happier for Meta's breakout game...

[BUfan39]

Now that’s the team from November. Best game Meta has had as a Brave and Hickman reminds the league what he can do when healthy. The biggest key to the W tonight was the rebounding. Keep the turnovers down, win the rebounding battle, and you’ll find yourself in the win column more than not. Impressive team win on the road.

[Stevezall]

I listened to the Game on the Radio. I believe the closest Valpo got was 10 points in the 2nd Half. I was worried abit about Bradley closing this game out as that has been an issue this season. However, the seemed to respond every time even when Valpo was hitting 3's in the 2nd half as well as when Valpo got a 4 point play. But in the end, Bradley held off any comeback by Valpo as they created 20 turnovers!!!! It was fun to listen to Dave On the Radio as he seemed so excited with Bradley's performance!!! As coach Wardle said in his post-game, any team can beat another team! And I'm happy Bradley took Valpo seriously because records don't matter...it's HARD to get a road win in the Valley and Bradley just did!!! Now, we have to continue on tough mentally and build a winning streak and get back in this Valley race!!!

[Da Coach]

Really nice win. I know Valparaiso is an undermanned team, but as well as the Bradley team played tonight, they could have competed with any of the MVC teams.
Bradley shot 48.4% (30-62) from the floor, and 42.3% (11-26) from three. They were 15-22 on FTs (68.2%). Bradley outrebounded Valpo 40-27, and had 17 assists (Duke Deen had a Bradley career-high 8 assists), and they foirced 20 Valpo turnovers.
A terrific performance by Connor Hickman (28 points), and a career best 15 points from Jonovic.
Malevy Leon had only 8 points, but had 7 rebounds and 3 steals, and he held Valparaiso starting big man Cooper Schweiger to 0 points, and Schweiger was in foul trouble all night guarding Leons. Davis had 12 points and a game-high 9 rebounds, and Hannah played well on both ends, 10 points, 4 rebounds, 4 assists, and 2 steals.
Official box score- https://www.valpoathletics.com/mbask...po-01-03-2024/
Attendance 1,328

If we get the same effort Saturday afternoon against Missouri State, Bradley should be 2-2 in the Valley.

[bigjimmy]

A much needed easy Valley win. Conner was awesome in the first half and it was nice seeing us going with the hot hand. Meta far and away had his best overall game as a Brave as he had a career high 15 points, 6 rebounds and 3 assists. Davis also had a really good game as he had 12 points and a team high 9 rebounds. Other then Darius shooting 2-8 from the FT line the rest of the team was 13-14. Other then forcing up a few too many quick, contested shots Duke had a season high 8 assists. just 2 turnovers and 10 points. We held them scoreless the last 6:49 of the game. Something to build on for the next game.

[bradleyfan124]

In re-watching the game I noticed Atlason while playing defense created about 4 turnovers by knocking the ball away

[ManMythLegend]

Nice to get a convincing W last night. Hickman was fun to watch being in the zone and so confident. Also nice to see Meta have a great game. He could have posted and backed down Valpos bigs all night and I hope that he continues to grow and get more confidence in doing so. Leons was quiet on the offensive end last night and so was Duke but we didn't need them to be high scorers so that's fine. I liked the effort on defense and the glass especially on the offensive end. That looked more like the Bradley team we know. Keep it rolling.

[basketball nut]

I thought that our intensity in this game was the best it has been from beginning to the end in any game this year

[Dubl R 1]

In re-watching the game I noticed Atlason while playing defense created about 4 turnovers by knocking the ball away

Was at the game,and sat just a couple rows behind BU bench. Coach was really on Almar several times again for his defense this game. Only 2 of them were deserved imo, once on an offensive rebound he didn't grab the ball and quit playing which led to a WIDE open 3 for Valpo, which they missed, and once he didn't switch correctly on a pick and roll. But several times on switches he got matched up against a guard who waived off everybody once he realized Almar was guarding and on about 3 of those times the guard really hit a tough shot with Almar right in his face...now unless he did something against philosophy on those isolated defensive possessions, it didn't appear to be bad defense, it's just the guard hit a really tough shot....seems like Al can't catch a break right now in that regard, of course the offensive player may have "confidence" thinking Al isn't a good defender and that may have something to do with shot making. Also, I thought the foul late on Al on the 3 point shot was questionable....he had his hands straight up the whole time, and the offensive player jumped towards the basket a good 2 feet, making it real tough for Al to get out of his landing space, but Coach was all over him for that too.

Wardle did have good things to say about Al's defense on the post game show, which is good!

Off this topic, but I thought it was weird how earlier in the game, the ref called a Valpo player for an offensive foul on a 3 point attempt for kicking out his leg, in which on the attempt the offensive player fell down...not sure how that wasn't a flop technical.