Final score- Bradley 61 Drake 59

[Da Coach]

Bradley wins!
Final score- Bradley 61 Drake 59 - https://stats.statbroadcast.com/broadcast/?id=546478

Way to close out the game! Bradley with terrific defense down the stretch. Drake did not score a field goal in the final 3:25, as Bradley came from behind to win on Darius Hannah's dunk with 8 seconds left in the game.
Only 4 turnovers in the 2nd half. Bradley 53.5% overall (23-43) and 41.2% from three (7-17)
Held Stirtz to 8 points & 4 assists.
Duke Deen- 11 points
Zek Montgomery- 11 points, 4 assists
Darius, Burch, and Davis all had 9 points.
Bradley is in 2nd place 1 game behind Drake. Record- 21-6, 12-4 in the MVC.

[tomahawk chop]

Great win, kept Mascari from hurting us in the second half which to me was a big reason in winning this game. I thought we missed a lot of shots in the lane that our players normally make in those situations. Now come home and get ready for ISU.

[bigjimmy]

Best win this season so far! Showed a lot of toughness and poise down the stretch.

[Da Coach]

Great win, kept Mascari from hurting us in the second half which to me was a big reason in winning this game. I thought we missed a lot of shots in the lane that our players normally make in those situations. Now come home and get ready for ISU.

Mascari was 0-3 from three in the 2nd half (4-10 overall).
Bradley overcame a lot of whistles, and the officials giving Drake 20 free throws in the 2nd half. It didn't get them flustered, and they came up big in the final minutes, holding Drake to NO field goals in the final 3:25 of the game.

In case anyone is wondering...
The current MVC tiebreaker rules for the MVC Tournament were revise a year ago. Here they are for a 2-way tie. - https://mvc-sports.com/documents/202...eaker_2024.pdf

4.2.4 Ties. In the event of a tie for any position within the standings, ties shall be broken
utilizing the following factors, in order, until all ties are broken:
a. Head-to-head competition (two-way tie). If the teams split their series, teams will
be ranked by NCAA NET on the morning after the final regular-season
Conference game. If the teams played only once, the winner of the game will be
the higher seed.

So the two teams have split the 2 regular-season games, and the tiebreaker in the case of a 2-way tie will end up being the NET ranking.
Unfortunately, that favors Drake. Right now, Drake's NET is 56 and Bradley's is 82.
Those numbers will change a little in Bradley's favor after the NCAA recalculates them after today's games. However, the change will not be enough to get Bradley's NET up to Drake's. It might be difficult for Bradley to jump ahead of Drake in the next 2 weeks, even if Drake loses another game.

[pfcmsh]

I'm so happy for Coach Wardle and our Braves!! Go Bradley!!

[Da Coach]

Official box score - https://bradleybraves.com/sports/men...boxscore/22362

The attendance for today's game at Drake was 6,424. That was, by far, their largest attendance of the season.

Drake was averaging 3,747 per game prior to today, and their previous high attendance this season was 5,464 for a home game against UNI on 1/29/25.

[daveineureka]

Great college basketball game to watch. Even with 3 Bradley players in foul trouble, we somehow came away with the win. If we would have hit a few more free throws then Drake's last possession would not have mattered. Mentioned before in a post that they are not invincible. They play good defense and use the shot clock to their advantage. They will be a tough out in St. Louis. Happy for the win and we still can play better. Need to play our best ball heading into the tournament. Another 20 win season in the books. Now hopefully the program takes the next step and qualifies for NCAA play each March. Enjoy the win and now to Normal on Wednesday night. Another tough one but confident the team can do it. "LET'S GO BRAVES"

[Tommy]

Great effort by the boys! Meta and Demarion really showed up today, along with all the usual suspects. CD really should be the player of the game the way he shut down Stirtz, and defense all around was outstanding, so kudos to the team and coach for gameplan and effort.
Was it just me or was that call at the end of the game against Zek absolutely terrible? Banks was grabbing his arms the whole time and then they called Zek for the foul. Egregious! Had Drake shot better from the line, this discussion would look a lot different. Sure hope the refs aren’t so bad in the tournament, as it’s baffling to see Drake consistently blown for less whistles than their opponent while playing the most aggressive and physical style defense in the conference. Whatever, I guess, officials are just one of the obstacles to overcome and our boys did if today!
Great win! Now let’s go beat down the redturds on their home court!

[BengalFan14]

Nice win. I thought the defense of Davis and Duke was the biggest factor today, along with Burch getting us back in the game early on offense. Much better second half turnover wise.

I like the way Coach put the little guys on Stirtz in the full court knowing Drake would run screens and we would switch it to get CD or Zek on Stirtz in the half court. It was a good strategy. Served to wear him out toward the end I think. We can see what they like to run and once all the switching was done we were properly matched at the end of the shot clock - which is when Drake does a lot of damage.

[Bradley8792]

Great team win today. Everyone contributed. Seemed like we let them play their game and we were able to beat them. Beating them at home gives me a lot more confidence that we can take them on a neutral court.

[basketball nut]

These are 2 very evenly matched teams. Missed FT by both teams made for a close and exciting finish.
If these 2 meet in St Louis in the championship game we are going to get our money's worth but the conference is more evenly matched then we thought it would be.
We can't let up Wednesday night and isu has been playing everyone close.

[Da Coach]

A huge contribution off the bench today by Demarion Burch. Not only did he play great defense, but he added 9 points in 12 minutes of playing time.
He also added this emphatic dunk late in the 1st half to end a 9-0 run by Bradley that erased a deficit and put Bradley ahead to finish the first half. - https://x.com/BradleyUMBB/status/1891210637256110543

[Da Coach]

Postgame article from BradleyBraves.com - https://bradleybraves.com/news/2025/...-road-win.aspx

And from the Drake website - https://godrakebulldogs.com/news/202...ves-61-59.aspx

[bradleyfan124]

Postgame article from BradleyBraves.com - https://bradleybraves.com/news/2025/...-road-win.aspx

And from the Drake website - https://godrakebulldogs.com/news/202...ves-61-59.aspx

Somebody needs to tell Bradley Burch is a Sophomore

[Steve Zalutsky]

What a great victory on the road with a sellout crowd! Bradley came in Hunting and got the job done! This win and that incredible Dunk by Birch, maybe was a statement by Birch to come off the bench and say, we are here to compete and to beat you at your own game! To me Burch is the symbol of toughness that we will need to have moving forward for a Bradley program to be competing highly each year to make the NCAA tourney!!!!!