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Final score: Bradley 78 Indiana State 67

Outscored them 44-28 in the second half. This is the BU team we've seen at home. When we play well we have 5-6 guys in double figures and we had 5 tonight, led by Rienk in the first 28 minutes and dominated by Zek in the last 12:00. Both had 18. Mast also had 13 rebounds. We shot 58% in the second half and held them to 28%. Outrebounded them 41-38 and we just had 3 turnovers in the 2nd half. The 2nd half effort is what we need to keep seeing.
 
BUfan14 said:
This is a good first step. Indiana State played sloppy, but we did take advantage and on the road no less. I also think we found some things that can work with Montgomery bringing the ball up, and a Mast/Leons two man game.

Now we need to beat another good team and defend our home court against Belmont. You think we'd be fired up for it after what happened in Nashville. Win that and I'm willing to say we are back in contention.
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I agree. I still have apprehension. But no doubt Braves will be favored at home rest of the way. Remaining road games aren’t as daunting as the first four. At SIU sure, but other then that where do we see a loss? UNI? Valpo? ISU? UIC?
 
Really happy with this win! Feels great and was really needed, probably the defining moment of the season so far. Hope is still alive.

that said still a little worried about the sloppy play we saw in the first half. A lot of bad turnovers. However Rienk and then Montgomery took over and willed a win to happen.
 
tecon89 said:
I agree. I still have apprehension. But no doubt Braves will be favored at home rest of the way. Remaining road games aren’t as daunting as the first four. At SIU sure, but other then that where do we see a loss? UNI? Valpo? ISU? UIC?
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This is why Saturday will be so huge. Win and SIU will be ahead of you by one game at most, as the sole team in first place. Lose and many teams could pass you up, and Belmont would have a three game lead essentially since they would own the tiebreaker after sweeping us. Saturday now, once again, becomes the biggest game of the year for the third straight game. Win that and the schedule eases up somewhat the rest of the way. I see a path to the championship. However, we must win Saturday first.
 
Congrats to Ville on the 34 straight FTs streak. :-o:wink: Missing the next 2 FT attempts.....start a new streak, other than Ville the team has been losey at the line....must improve to stay in the hunt...:idea::idea::idea:
 
What was evident to me was that in the second half we slowed the game and executed a patient offense. Only 3 turns. High shooting %. Have not seen that this year. I think we need to slow up.
 
Duke was in foul trouble early, and sat for a while in the first half when he got his 2nd foul. Then he was pulled out again in the 2nd half when he got his 3rd foul, then with his 4th foul. Then he fouled out with 3:52 left in the game.

I did not hear the post-game interview with Coach Wardle. Did Wardle address that 5th foul on Duke? It did not appear to me that he was near the play when the foul was called. A timeout was called, and a then the referee approached the Bradley huddle, spoke briefly with Wardle, then called a technical foul on the Bradley coach. Wardle was very upset with the call. The announcers never explained what the technical was for. Was it because Wardle did not send in a replacement quick enough? The 2 free throws for the personal foul, plus the 2 free throws for the technical cut Bradley's 70-60 lead down to 70-64 with 3:52 left. It could have turned the game around, but the Braves held strong, thanks in part to Zek Montgomery, who scored the final 8 points for BU, including a couple huge three pointers.
 
Dub said:
What was evident to me was that in the second half we slowed the game and executed a patient offense. Only 3 turns. High shooting %. Have not seen that this year. I think we need to slow up.
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I agree Dub. Executing and being patient were key along with Zek playing out of his mind in the 2nd half. Hope that half carries over to Saturday night.
 
Da Coach said:
Duke was in foul trouble early, and sat for a while in the first half when he got his 2nd foul. Then he was pulled out again in the 2nd half when he got his 3rd foul, then with his 4th foul. Then he fouled out with 3:52 left in the game.

I did not hear the post-game interview with Coach Wardle. Did Wardle address that 5th foul on Duke? It did not appear to me that he was near the play when the foul was called..
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Snell made a comment like "Yeah, that definitely wasn't a foul." and Wardle just said "I don't have a comment on that." Implying that he didn't want to get in trouble for criticizing officials.
 
BUfan14 said:
This is why Saturday will be so huge. Win and SIU will be ahead of you by one game at most, as the sole team in first place. Lose and many teams could pass you up, and Belmont would have a three game lead essentially since they would own the tiebreaker after sweeping us. Saturday now, once again, becomes the biggest game of the year for the third straight game. Win that and the schedule eases up somewhat the rest of the way. I see a path to the championship. However, we must win Saturday first.
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No question about that. Hopefully crowd shows up big
 
Bradley3342 said:
I agree Dub. Executing and being patient were key along with Zek playing out of his mind in the 2nd half. Hope that half carries over to Saturday night.
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Further to my point, as much as I like what Deen brings for us so many times, he also can tend to take early shots and can get wild. With him on the bench, it seemed like we found a pace that worked tonight and one which resulted in getting the ball down to the post quite readily. Perhaps we can use him to drive pace and score, but situationally go to Hickman and Zek for ball handling as well. It’s an interesting discovery made tonight…. Perhaps a fluke, perhaps not.
 
I’ll tell you what. Kudos to the PJS writer Dave E on the quality and timeliness of the BU game articles this year…. He brings solid content.

Remember when the tone from the PJS coverage so often seemed to be dissapointment somehow when Bradley did well and joy when they did poorly? So weird, and glad that’s no longer the case.

Good job Dave E.
 
BUfan14 said:
Ville, for all his flaws, is a great free throw shooter.
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LOL - and I was thinking that too during the game, wondering how many he had made in a row.
Then, of course, he misses 2 straight, which I can’t recall him ever doing in 5 years!
He has become a bigger threat driving in the paint than a 3-point threat, which is quite amazing and baffling at the same time.
Ville seems to have gotten a little tougher on D this season, as he’s been a liability most of his BU career.
Very good rebounder too. I think he’s had a good season so far, but an underwhelming run overall, which started so hopeful after his freshman season.
 
All I gotta say is….ZEEEEEEEEEEK!!!
He was the difference tonight and gave us the confidence and momentum to the final buzzer.
When Duke stopped playing point and Zek took that role, we suddenly played efficiently.
Ja’Shon kept us within striking distance before Zek got hot.

I hope we can all look back on this game and say it was the turning point to get that pesky road monkey off our backs…that gave the Braves the mental toughness to WIN the Valley regular season!

After this one, I am believing again!
It wasn’t pretty…really at ALL
But we got the job done. I do believe we have the most talent of any team in the league, though 2 or 3 teams are close behind.
(Drake, SIU, Blemont)

Time to rise UP in the Valley guys!
 
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