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Final: Belmont 78 Bradley 76

Zek should not have been the ball handler on the second to last possession. Not sure why he had it and why he rushed into the key with wayyy too much time left.
 
Free throws…we knew it would cost this team a game at some point and it did.

I’m sure most of the attention will go to the decision to give Zek the ball, but my biggest question is why have Ville on Friberg on a huge possession? Put someone with length and athleticism that can bother him.

Wasn’t a terrible game, but it hurts bad considering it all but knocks us out of a chance at first. It’s what I said after Indiana State, we aren’t contenders still unless we won this and we are not. Three games back of Belmont essentially. This team took too long to come together and left themselves no room for error in a game like this. I think it’s fair to say the regular season has been a disappointment. The only hope is Arch Madness once again, and SIU and Belmont seem really tough to beat, especially probably having to play both in the tournament.
 
On postgame coach said coaches and J HEN were trying to call time but refs did not see them. Zek too sped up and coach admitted Duke or Hick should have had the ball. He was really unhappy with our defense. The best home crowd in a long time.
 
BUfan14 said:
Free throws…we knew it would cost this team a game at some point and it did.

I’m sure most of the attention will go to the decision to give Zek the ball, but my biggest question is why have Ville on Friberg on a huge possession? Put someone with length and athleticism that can bother him.

Wasn’t a terrible game, but it hurts bad considering it all but knocks us out of a chance at first. It’s what I said after Indiana State, we aren’t contenders still unless we won this and we are not. Three games back of Belmont essentially. This team took too long to come together and left themselves no room for error in a game like this. I think it’s fair to say the regular season has been a disappointment. The only hope is Arch Madness once again, and SIU and Belmont seem really tough to beat, especially probably having to play both in the tournament.
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Agree with everything you said. It's mind boggling how poor of a free throw shooting team we have been for years. We also make some really poor decisions on crucial possessions which leads to turnovers or very low probability shots. I honestly can't remember a more frustrating team to watch.

It would take a miracle to win the regular season after today. Only hope we can continue to improve and make a run in STL, but as you said we likely have to go through SIU and Belmont. I have zero confidence that we can beat Belmont in the Lou.

Knock down a couple more free throws and play lock down D on Friberg late in the 2nd half and we are all singing a different tune.
 
TRAVELING! How can you blow that call in a tied game?

Also horrendous was when we were up four, Henry got obliterated twice on rebound putbacks with no calls, then Sheppard (sp?) gets the wind blown on him on the next possession and gets fouled. We should have been probably going up six and in a flash, the lead was gone.

Contrary to what others said, I'd LOVE to play these guys in STL. I am still convinced we are better than these guys and I hope we get a chance to prove it there. Very unlikely they can beat us three times in a row ...
 
houstonbrave said:
On postgame coach said coaches and J HEN were trying to call time but refs did not see them. Zek too sped up and coach admitted Duke or Hick should have had the ball. He was really unhappy with our defense. The best home crowd in a long time.
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How in the world do the refs miss the timeout? Every game ever played a timeout is called in that situation. They should have been looking for it. Terrible..
 
Not sure we can complain too much about our free throw percentage we were 17-22 for 77 percent. I’d always like higher but that is pretty good.
 
Coach Wardle talked about mistakes made in his post-game interview, including mistakes by the coaching staff. One mistake I think he was referring to was not putting Duke back in to play the point on the last full possession by Bradley. Zek has been good, but with the game tied and possibly the biggest possession of the game, you want your best point guard handling the ball. Unfortunately it lead to a turnover and gave Belmont plenty of time to score the winning basket.
Overall a great game between 2 good teams. I though the game mirrored the game in Nashville with Bradley pulling ahead late, then Belmont coming back, and winning it in the final seconds.
Bradley is not out of the MVC race, but they have little margin for error from now on. And it makes to 2 games against SIU even more important.

Final box score- https://bradleybraves.com/sports/men...boxscore/21522

Attendance 5,854
 
That sure looked like traveling from my seats. But that didn't cost us the game. First time we played Belmont, I thought they could only beat us one way. With three's. Tonight, I thought the same thing, and we allowed them to do it to us again.

Belmont's record is no fluke. That's a good team, well coached.

Thrilling game to watch, heart breaking as it was. Nice to see fans in the stands.
 
Just another frustrating effort today. Always seemed to be a step behind in defending the 3 and Wardle confirmed as much after the game. How and why the guys don’t talk on defense is beyond me. They’ve played enough games to not still have that happen. On offense we went inside to Rienk early and often we stopped. He rarely got the ball down low in the second half. That’s a poor coaching decision. Duke got dominated by the Belmont point guard as he was quicker and more physical. But we also don’t try to get him open. And as good as we have been in scoring off of timeouts during most of the game how can we continually mess up in end of the half and the end of the game situations. Granted the players have to execute but it’s on the coaches to put them in the right situations. I’ve always been very impressed by Belmont and the way they run their system and they get players who fit their system. I’m still trying to figure out what’s the system we have.
 
BUBraves2006 said:
TRAVELING! How can you blow that call in a tied game?

Also horrendous was when we were up four, Henry got obliterated twice on rebound putbacks with no calls, then Sheppard (sp?) gets the wind blown on him on the next possession and gets fouled. We should have been probably going up six and in a flash, the lead was gone.

Contrary to what others said, I'd LOVE to play these guys in STL. I am still convinced we are better than these guys and I hope we get a chance to prove it there. Very unlikely they can beat us three times in a row ...
Click to expand...

If we don't guard the 3 better than we have both times, I believe they would beat us for the 3rd time.
 
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