PEORIA, Ill. -- With Bradley All-American candidate Marcellus Sommerville unavailable after fouling out with 2:57 remaining, a pair of freshmen came through with the big plays down the stretch, lifting the Braves (10-4, 3-3) to an 81-76 Missouri Valley Conference men's basketball victory versus Evansville (9-6, 3-4) Saturday afternoon at Carver Arena.
Sommerville, who began the day leading the Valley in scoring, led four Bradley players in double-figures with 18 points and added seven rebounds. Freshman guard Jeremy Crouch (Pekin, Ill./Pekin H.S.) and junior reserve forward Lawrence Wright (Beale A.F.B., Calif./Wheatland H.S.) each scored 17 points, while junior guard Tony Bennett (Chicago, Ill./Westinghouse H.S.) chipped in with 15 points. Evansville forward Matt Webster scored a game-high 24 points. Kyle Anslinger added 13 points for the Purple Aces and Andre Burton completed the double-digit scoring with 10 points.
After Bradley fell behind 40-38 when Bradley Strickland made one of two free throw attempts to start the second half, Crouch triggered a 9-0 run by scoring the first five points of the surge and assisting a Bennett basket, before Bennett completed the outburst with a putback basket for a 47-40 Braves lead. Bradley eventually increased the advantage to 65-53 when Wright converted a 3-point play with 11:23 left.
In similar fashion to the first half when Bradley let a 12-point lead get away, Evansville came storming back and took a 74-72 lead when Webster drained a 3-pointer from the left wing with 2:04 remaining. After Wright closed the gap to 74-73 by making one free throw with 1:49 to go, Crouch came through with the play of the game by grabbing a defensive rebound and racing to the other end of the court for a tough go-ahead layup with 1:34 left.
After freshman center Patrick O'Bryant (Blaine, Minn./Blaine H.S.) got his second blocked shot of the game on Evansville's next possession, the 7-footer grabbed an offensive rebound when Crouch misfired on a 3-point try and scored on a putback for a 77-74 Bradley lead with 35 seconds to go. Bennett and Wright combined to make four free throw attempts in as many tries in the final 19 seconds to seal the win.
The win ended Bradley's first losing streak of the season at two games and extended its home winning streak to 14 games, which equals its fourth-longest home streak in the 23-year history of Carver Arena.
Bradley will return to action Wednesday when the Braves visit league co-leader Southern Illinois (13-3, 4-0) in a 7:05 p.m. contest at SIU Arena. The Braves will host Northern Iowa Jan. 22 and Creighton Jan. 26.
