Wednesday, February 13, 2019, 7:00 p.m.
Carver Arena, Peoria, Illinois
No other team in the MVC has had more of a roller-coaster ride in 2018-19 than Bradley. Picked to finish fourth in the league, the Braves brought back nearly everyone on their roster from a 20-win team that made the Arch Madness semifinals last year. In the non-con season, the Braves lost to several teams they should have beat: UIC, Eastern Illinois, IUPUI, and Georgia Southern. But they also beat SMU and Penn State.
When the bell rang to start the conference season, Bradley was perplexingly bad. They lost their first five conference games—all of them against the bottom 6 preseason picks-- by an average of 11.2 points per game.
Since their 0-5 start, the Braves have turned the ship. They’re 5-2 in their last seven games and playing their best basketball of the season. They throttled rival Illinois State at home by 17 points, and last time out they beat Indiana State by 29—and neither game was really that close.
Three players have started every Bradley game this season: 5’10” junior point guard Darrell Brown, 6’7” sophomore forward Elijah Childs, and 6’4” senior guard Dwayne Lautier-Ogunleye. Brown is Bradley’s leading scorer yet again, averaging 15.1 points per game, and he also leading the team in assists and steals. Brown is like a choreographer, dictating the offense, pace, and game flow. The rest of the team takes their cues from Brown, perhaps more than any other team in the league depends on a single player. Brown averages nearly 33 minutes per game, and when he scores less than 10 points Bradley is 0-3. He has the ability to knock down deep NBA-length threes with uncanny accuracy, which tends to flummox standard perimeter defenses. On the season, Brown shoots 46.6% on threes, but only 35.6% on two-point shots.
Childs averages 11.8 points and 7.8 rebounds, passes well, and is one of the best shot-blockers in the league. Lautier-Ogunleye (known as DLO in every Bradley fan post) is the team’s top on ball defender, and adds 8.6 points and 2.2 assists. Filling out the starting lineup (depending on the opponent) are 6’11” junior center Koch Bar, 6’6” junior guard Nate Kennell, 6’9” senior forward Luuk Van Bree, and 6’3” guard Luqman Lundy.
Bradley might be the deepest team in the league. Besides the seven players who have had seven or more starts on the year, highly-touted 6’6” freshman guard Ja’Shon Henry has been playing well lately, redshirt junior Antoine Pittman has received playing time after recovering from injury, and 6’3” guard Jayden Hodgson plays double digit minutes. In their last time out against Indiana State, 13 players saw time on the court, and Bradley topped their previous season high in points by 10 points.
Loyola is coming off a hard-fought, physical, come-from-behind road win at Valparaiso. The Loyola win at Valpo boosted Loyola’s conference road record to 3-3. Bradley’s home conference record stands at 2-4.
Loyola game notes: https://loyolaramblers.com/documents/20 ... df?id=8354Bradley game notes: https://bradleybraves.com/index.aspx?path=mbballTV/Streaming video: ESPN +
http://www.espn.com/watch/_/id/d9a546eb ... vs-bradleyLive stats: https://bradleybraves.com/sidearmstats/mbball/summaryVegas odds: Loyola by 2.5