PEORIA, Ill. -- Bradley senior forward Marcellus Sommerville continued his hot shooting of late and shared team-high scoring honors with sophomore center Patrick O'Bryant as the front court tandem each contributed 17 points to Bradley's 86-76 Missouri Valley Conference men's basketball victory versus Missouri State Wednesday night at Carver Arena.
Bradley (11-7) and Missouri State (12-6) are now tied for fifth in the Valley standings with 5-5 league records.
Valley scoring leader Blake Ahearn scored a game-high 23 points for the Bears and forward Nathan Bilyeu contributed 14 points and eight rebounds before fouling out with 1:54 remaining. In addition to O'Bryant and Sommerville, Bradley received double-digit scoring from junior guard Tony Bennett and sophomore point guard Daniel Ruffin, each with 13 points.
Bradley came out scorching, hitting eight of its first 10 shots, and the Braves remained hot from the field throughout. Bradley converted 31-of-53 (.585) field goal attempts. O'Bryant (6-10) and Sommerville (7-11) combined to hit 13-of-21 (.619) from the floor. The Braves never trailed and took the lead for good, 4-2, on Sommerville's short jumper less with 18:12 left in the first half.
Sommerville added a corner jumper from the right corner with 14:14 left in the half to ignite a 10-2 Bradley run that turned an 8-6 advantage into a 18-8 margin with 10:33 left. The Braves used another 10-2 surge to turn a expand a 29-21 lead to 39-23 edge with 52 seconds left in the half. O'Bryant capped the outburst with a 3-point play.
After seeing the deficit grow to 18 points on two occassions, 46-28 and 51-33, in the second half, Missouri State made a run at the Braves and closed to within 55-49 on a Sky Frazier putback with 10:23 remaining. O'Bryant answered with a slam to halt the run and Ruffin beat the shot clock with an 18-foot jumper on the left wing with 5:56 left to push the lead back to double-digits, 63-52.
The Bears tried to turn the game into a free throw shooting contest in the final 2:14 and the strategy briefly worked as MSU cut a 73-57 deficit to 78-70 with 51 seconds left. Ruffin and reserve point guard Will Franklin made six straight free throw attempts in the final 31 seconds, however, to thwart the final comeback.
Bradley, which earned its third consecutive home win versus Missouri State for the first time in the 34-game history of the rivalry, will now hit the road for four of its next five games, beginning with a Saturday night visit to Evansville (5-13, 1-9).
