Final score: Bradley 90 Indiana State 89 in overtime

[Big Mike]

OMG.....Braves win in OT....90-89

[Big Mike]

Bradley deserves the W with the bullshit discrepancy in foul calls!

[BengalFan14]

Bradley deserves the W with the bullshit discrepancy in foul calls!

I agree. The refs didn’t let the kids do anything.

[molar50]

Wow, what a finish. Bradley had 2 players foul out early and it seamed that every offensive possession that ISU had the ball, the refs called a foul on Bradley. Large discrepancy in number of free throws. Wardle was smart in going to a zone defense late in the OT. Duke Deen refused to allow ISU to win.

[Da Coach]

Bradley wins in overtime for the second game in a row.
Final score- Bradley 90 Indiana State 89 - https://stats.statbroadcast.com/statmonitr/?id=547362&_gl=1*3coy98*_ga*MTE1ODI3NTYxLjE2OTg2MT gyMzY.*_ga_2ZWVK1X7BJ*MTczNTc3NjQ3OC4yNy4wLjE3MzU3 NzY0NzguMC4wLjA.

The game was tied 82-82 at the end of regulation. Then, Indiana State scored the first 7 points of overtime to lead 89-82. But then a switch by Bradley to a zone defense coincided with Indiana State going the final 2 minutes 46 seconds of overtime without scoring. Meanwhile, Bradley scored the final 8 points of overtime, including a near-impossible circuitous drive by Duke Deen for a layup with 4 seconds left to win the game.
What a game!
Bradley overcame a number of obstacles, if you know what I mean. Just by pure coincidence, Indiana State shot 21 more free throws than Bradley, and two Bradley players fouled out (Hannah & Davis). Plus 3 more Bradley players had 4 fouls, necessitating the zone defense.

[BUSongwriter]

Bradley deserves the W with the bullshit discrepancy in foul calls!

Yes. 36 FTs for Indiana State, 15 for Bradley. At one point it was 30-10. ISU-blue would drive into the lane and either get a foul or a basket. Apparently this wasn't a game for Meta, but after drive after drive I would have liked to have parked him under the basket on defense to stop that strategy.

Road wins are tough. Somehow we gutted this one out, while Drake couldn't do the same earlier in the day. We're back to being Valley favorites, IMO.

[molar50]

The bus trip back to Peoria will be a great ride for the team

[BUfan14]

Again, I hesitate to ever blame refs, but for the second straight game they were awful. I hope it’s not that way all Valley season. I get part of it is reputation and playing style, but the Christian Davis fifth foul he never even touched him at all.

Senior leadership helps in these games. Duke and Zek are great. I liked adding Zek back, but didn’t think he’d replace Hick. I was wrong. He’s much better offensively now than he was. Still better when he works inside out than shooting pull up threes, but he’s dynamic offensively and certainly the better play on that end than Hick, though Hick may still have him on defense.

Nice to see Dillon, Jaquan, Burch, Atlason, and Thomas all do some nice things to help. But I still believe we need someone from that group to step up as the season goes and become a fifth consistent presence to get where we want to go. The other four we know what they can do. I’m not worried about Hannah having a rough game, though I do want to see him back in the post more offensively rather than hanging around the perimeter. I think he’s gotten too comfortable standing out there.

We are not a top 50 team yet by the look test or the NET. I’d like to be there by year’s end. Those players I mentioned above and their development, especially in the post will be key. Nice to win while trying to get better and that was a nice crowd they had too. On TV, it sounded loud. I also liked a Deen, Burch/Dillon/Johnson, Zek, Davis, Hannah lineup on occasion for small ball. Could be a nice change of pace against smaller teams or if we’re getting nothing from the post some nights. Overall, we pulled a rabbit out and it’s a nice win, let’s keep getting better.

[Da Coach]

Coach Wardle needs to play more zone defense. Teams now seem plan their offense against Bradley to just drive into the lane, and know the officials will call a foul on BU every time.

[NashvilleBU]

Another huge OT win. The foul discrepancy was so bad. Winning on the road will be tough all season with the weak officiating. CD never fouls out so that’s how you know it’s bad.

The combo of Zek and Duke is special. I thought Hannah had an off night. CD is always super efficient. Burch had a great game after not playing much against Valpo.

[pfcmsh]

I think it was a great move by Coach Wardle to call a timeout with 3:20 left in OT and ISU up by 5. Without that timeout, ISU might have pulled away.

[Da Coach]

Btw, though Bradley had their second sub-par 3-point shooting game in a row (10-31), they still lead the county in 3-point FG% with 43.3% (156-360).

[Hawk84]

That was the most over-officiated game i've ever seen him my life. I'd be curious to know when the last time Bradley was called for 18 fouls in a half. The refs absolutely took over the game. Indiana State's strategy in the second half was simple - drive to the basket and initiate contact. If you miss it's an automatic call on the defender. What are the interior defenders supposed to do? Even when they are straight up and down, in a set position, and don't move it's called a foul. The last foul on Davis was particularly egregious, but there were so many phantom fouls it was just ridiculous. It's like the refs thought everyone came to see them instead of the players. Great to get the win, but really had to overcome maybe the worst officiated game I've ever seen. Just awful.

[BUBraves2006]

That had so many twists and turns, it's hard to articulate where to start with it. Coach Wardle said in the postgame he'd never seen a team take 30 threes AND shoot 30 FTs in the same game in his entire coaching career. He was almost giddy to get out with a win in that situation.

I wish I could understand what the MVC refs are noticing differently about us than other teams. I was checking through the box scores and nobody had close to the number of fouls we had today, so it wasn't just a MVC reffing problem. The biggest ones I take issue with is when our players jump straight up, which is how you're defensively told to defend nowadays, and just because the opposing team jumps into your lower half, it's always a foul on us. Even Coach Wardle alluded to "you can't even try to take charges anymore" so this is the way you're supposed to defend. That's where I'd like a better explanation from the refs and ask them what we're supposed to do to actually defend and not get a foul called every possession the ball goes in the lane.

Back to my pregame notes:

• Indiana State's schedule has been just lousy aside from their last game. They have a lot of bad losses in there. But, they've got two Valley wins already. Very curious to see how they actually measure up against us with so much turnover. POST: I think they were about as I anticipated - upper half of the Valley probably although if it was officiated differently, it could be a much different story.
• Was Valpo actually just better than people think? Between their game against us and Drake, it seems like its so. If so, Indiana State feels like one of the teams they could jump in the standings and as a result be a very winnable road game for us. But, these things are always tricky, especially the night after New Years. POST: Valpo gets a road win (even a meager one) tonight to help building their case that they are greatly improved.
• Even after watching every minute of the 12 games so far, I can't quite figure out how good we actually are. Are we in the top 4 of the MVC? Yeah, I think that's obvious. Top 2? Likely. But, where do we stack up against Drake? How about other potential tournament teams? Are we really just about a top 70ish team or are we really a top 30-50 team? Maybe this is still to be written and we can't really know fully yet, but this is one I had circled just to see where we really stand so far. POST: I think I'm falling more into the top 70 camp now unless we start getting more consistent contributions from guys like Atlason.

Another big win, let's keep it going!

[BRAVE82]

Disgraceful officiating. Glad the guys never gave up. Hard to keep your composure with the BS calls we got.