Final score: Bradley 74 Murray State 61

[Big Mike]

Good to Win on the road....let's keep it going!

[Dub]

Just gotta say, I’ve never see a 7’1 person make 2-3 ft shots look so hard. If he even gets a shot off. Fumbles the ball or gets blocked too much too. Catching the ball is also a problem. Missed dunks. Someone explain the Meta love to me. Hope the kid gets better but man oh man. And yes I know he had a good game against isu blue. So did everyone else on the team.

Yep, he’s still working on getting better. He’s contributing what he can meantime. There’s the love.

[BengalFan14]

Good to Win on the road....let's keep it going!

That was a dominant win considering the line was 1.5 points. Really nice job!

[Da Coach]

Final score- Bradley 74 Murray State 61 - https://stats.statbroadcast.com/broadcast/?id=548231

Solid team win both offensively- 53.2% FG%, 7-18 from three, and 17-19 on FTs, and defensively- held Murray to 61 points and 41.7% FG%, and outrebounded them 28-25.

Thank goodness for Corey Thomas. He had another terrific game. 16 points in just 21 minutes of playing time. He had a +16 in the Plus/minus stat, and was the top Bradley player in the Efficiency Rating (22- click on Visitors Stats, then on the Analytics tab))..
He was 5-6 from the floor, 2-3 on three pointers, and 4-4 from the free throw line. Corey also tied for team-high with 6 rebounds and he had 2 assists.
Darius (16 points, 6 rebounds) and Duke (18 points, 5 assists )had great games, but no other player had more than 6 points.
I've said it many times, IMO he needs to get 25-30 minutes if he can avoid foul trouble for Bradley to be at their best.

[Da Coach]

Box score- https://bradleybraves.com/sports/men...boxscore/22354
Attendance- 5,594

[BUfan17]

Great to get a road win here.

I agree Thomas needs to be the starter at the 5. Meta can be serviceable, but is very matchup dependant.

[BengalFan14]

So far, ISU is showing much more heart against Drake than against us.

[BengalFan14]

So far, ISU is showing much more heart against Drake than against us.

Well…maybe not.

[yoda]

I believe, according to the BU record book, that we hadn't won at Murray State since Dec 7, 1963,

Overall, we are now 10-9 against them.

(I edited that out)

[Da Coach]

I believe, according to the BU record book, that we hadn't won at Murray State since Dec 7, 1963,
then we beat them there in Feb 2023 and again tonight.
Overall, we are now 10-9 against them.

Bradley had not beaten Murray State in Murray since they joined the MVC.
That entry in the Bradley record book contains an error that mistakenly denotes a home win on 2/11/23 as a road game.
The last time Bradley won in Murray was Dec. 7, 1963.

Here are the 2 games Bradley played against Murray State in the 2022-23 season, their first season in the MVC-
Bradley lost at Murray State 58-67 on January 4, 2023 - https://bradleybraves.com/news/2023/...ray-state.aspx
Then Bradley beat Murray State in Peoria on February 11, 2023, 83-48 - https://bradleybraves.com/sports/men...boxscore/21528
Then in the 2023-24 season, Bradley lost at Murray State 72-79 on Nov. 29. 2023, then won in Peoria on Jan. 24, 2024 71-63.

So as noted in the initial post in this thread, prior to today, Bradley had played Murray State 4 times in the 2 seasons since they entered the MVC, and split both years, winning each year in Peoria and losing each year in Murray.

[BUBraves2006]

A few additional thoughts to add after this one ...

1. It was really nice meeting some different BU fans at the game today, including a really nice conversation with Da Coach. I was proud of our fan showing for this one.
2. I can also see why it's generally pretty tough to win at Murray State. They don't have a massive fan base but the people who are there are loud and devoted to their team. It's all the more impressive that there were multiple times that the Racers started to go on a run and somebody on our side always hit a clutch shot to silence their run.
3. I haven't seen many people talk about it much here but the turning point in the game was the idiotic T by their coach after a clear offensive foul "hook" call. He went absolutely bananas (I loudly shouted to T him up and to my pleasant surprise the refs obliged about 5 seconds later.). They were on a big run and had gotten it down to six. After his childish ranting, two T FTs and two more FTs on that possession, it was back to 10 and we never looked back. I'm not going to say he cost them the game, but he definitely stunted the momentum his team was building. It was the most deserving T in a while.
4. In reverse, I give Coach Wardle a ton of credit after Atlason was whistled for a defensive foul in his brief appearance. I could almost hear him gesture and say something like, how is he supposed to play defense? From my vantage point, Atlason, who I know can be slow on D, actually played it well. But instead of exploding, Coach Wardle spent half the timeout immediately afterward talking to two of the refs to just get clarification on what Atlason did in the refs mind. It was the right way to do things. I have to give Coach Wardle a ton of credit - he has really matured quite a bit over the past couple seasons. He was good for a few T's a season before and seemed to run extra hot at the refs nightly. But, he's stayed much more level headed generally and I think that has kept him off the T sheet.
5. Apologies if anyone wanted popcorn at halftime - sounded like I heard we got the last one.

Look forward to seeing many of you in Nashville on Tuesday!

[bigjimmy]

Not too often you see a team go on the road and shoot it as good as we did in the first half at 15-21, an amazing 10-11 from 2. Then in the 2nd half we went over 6:00 without making a field goal. Thankfully we made 8 straight FT's while only giving up 7 points during that period. Won't be able to go without a FG for that long at Belmont on Tuesday. They have had only 2 games this season where they've scored under 70 points. They are not afraid to put up a lot of 3's so our defense better be on them from the get go.

[LittleBrave]

Nice game guys! Really wanted that one. Now we gotta keep the hunger for the sweep vs Belmont, but even if we go back to Peoria at 7-2, we're in good shape. However Drake and Belmont are better than most of us expected and it's been rare to have 3 very strong teams in the league in same season in recent years, and possibly fighting for the top spot with a shot at an At-Large bid.

The team showed heart and toughness. Cut down on the turnovers in the 2nd half and played smarter.
Great to see Hannah impose his will as he tends to be more timid on the road. Love Thomas' game and a great get by BW and staff!
Meta just makes u cringe unless nobody is around and he has an easy dunk. Glad he didn't cost us the game.
Duke didn't hit his 3's in the 2nd half. Zek was a bit off, but played great D IMO. The free throw discrepancy was the big difference in the end. Nice contributions by Dillon, JJ, and Thomas off the bench...another big reason we won by 10+.

Best record since 1988 I believe still. It's been a very fun season despite the Drake loss, but we responded like champions do.

[LittleBrave]

This team's depth is a pleasant change for Wardle teams. We have 8 guys contributing without Atlason and Burch, who will come around.
The newcomers this year I am pleased with so far - what was lacking last season.