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Final score: Bradley 61 Illinois State 57

Big Mike said:
Attendance 9656:-o
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That is the kind of game that builds toughness. It felt just like a post-season game, back and forth and overcoming a scary dry spell after grabbing a 10 point lead.
ISU falls to 4-6 in MVC play but 5 of their 6 league losses are close losses, either in OT or by 2 possessions or less. They could be dangerous the rest of the way.
 
Man they can hit 3 really quick....probably lucky we came away with a W!:wink:
Still do not understand why that wasn't called a foul by isu bulldozing Davis to the floor after review....announcers thought it was clearly a foul?:mad: :mad: :mad:
 
Strange officiating today. Seemed like only one ref blowing his whistle. Nice that they let them play, but some of the calls or missed calls seemed pretty obvious.
 
One way to look at the game today is to note that in their last 2 home games, Bradley has won by an average margin of victory of 28.5 points! :)

As Coach Wardle pointed out in the post-game show, ISU played an active 2-3 zone for the entirely of today's game, something they haven't played all season. They did a lot of switching defenders, and it gave the Bradley guards problems getting open shots. Combined with the threes not falling, it kept the game close.
When a team that relies a lot on three pointers shoots 22% from the arc, the end result isn't usually good. But, fortunately, the Braves hit their free throws (15-17) and outrebounded ISU 39-34. And with the help of a 10-0 run in less than 2 minutes midway through the 2nd half (from 13:56 to 12:02), they were able to pull ahead and held on to win by four, 61-57.

Box score- https://bradleybraves.com/sports/mens-basketball/stats/2024-25/illinois-state/boxscore/22356
Attendance- 9,646

Bradley is now 18-3, and 9-1 in the MVC
Standings- https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/standings/_/group/18
 
I was really pleased with the way Meta competed this afternoon, how he muscled up on defense against Chase Walker. Our 3-headed center of Meta, Corey, and Almar has to be the envy of the Valley. I was so happy to see Almar contribute in the second half. His 3 and his FTs were needed and hopefully will give him a confidence boost.
Bully seems a lock on the all-MVC freshman team, and if he keeps this up in the second half, the freshman POY. We're winning without Demarion in the rotation, but I hope he's feeling OK and gets some court time again soon. He's exciting as well. We have great depth!
Great to see a nearly filled arena. It was a great atmosphere. The 12-year-old violinist who played the National Anthem was awesome. I would still vote for less piped-in noise and more Bradley band. The DJ guy screamed something near the end for about 15 seconds and I had no idea what he said!
18-3 should make a few more Top 25 voters at least give us a look.
 
What a game, ISU Red had a game plan that resulted in us in coming close to losing this game. Their zone is have us a hard time in finding rhythm during the game. Good to see Almar finally hit a 3 pointer. Hope he can build off that and get some of his confidence back. What is up with Burch not playing again? Figured he would be feeling better by now. He has not played in the last three games. Or maybe four now. Hope he gets back to playing as he will be needed going down the stretch. Just has me scratching my head as to why he is not playing.:doubt:
 
It was a matchup zone and it gave us lots of trouble. I do think that we missed a half dozen shots they we normally make. This is one of those games that the most important part of it was just winning.
 
Big Mike said:
Man they can hit 3 really quick....probably lucky we came away with a W!:wink:
Still do not understand why that wasn't called a foul by isu bulldozing Davis to the floor after review....announcers thought it was clearly a foul?:mad: :mad: :mad:
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First off.. it was egregious that there was no foul on that play, however, I don’t think whether there was a foul or not was the reason for review there.
Kinzinger’s pass got batted up in the air and the result was those players running Davis over to get the ball, but the shot clock was incorrectly reset.
The review resulted in the shot clock being put back to 9 seconds.
I do not think they can call a foul even if seen on a replay if a foul wasn’t called to begin with
 
bradleyfan124 said:
I want to give a shout out to Tommy and thank him for putting all the games on YouTube. I enjoy rewatching the games they win plus I rewatch the games over the summer to satisfy my Bradley fix in the off season..
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Thanks BF124! I appreciate that!

Concerning today’s game, I think ISU used the same gameplay everyone will be looking to use against us, play extremely physical and hope the calls work out on their favor. About the only way to hold down our offense is to beat us up. The refs let them play today and their 3 point attempts resulted in enough makes to keep them in the game, but luckily our guys showed up and matched their physicality. I’d like to see us putting up more 3’s as well as we shoot them, but no complaints since we came away with the win. Great to see the place packed and excited. Agree with Big Mike that we just don’t seem to play our best ball when the big crowds show up. Maybe just a coincidence and they’ll prove us wrong next time (and let’s hope that is the next home game!).
 
Meta was great today. Not many points but a lot of rebounds and his best defense. He really held walker in check. I wish he would take the open 10 foot shot. His stroke is good.
 
houstonbrave said:
Meta was great today. Not many points but a lot of rebounds and his best defense. He really held walker in check. I wish he would take the open 10 foot shot. His stroke is good.
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He really did HB! He was so physical, Walker stopped even trying to shoot!
 
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