PEORIA, Ill. -- Bradley rewarded a school-record, standing room only crowd of 11,444 by routing Interstate 74 rival Illinois State, 88-67, Wednesday night at Carver Arena. Junior point guard Daniel Ruffin (Peoria, Ill./Central H.S.) turned in his second career double-double with 16 points and 10 assists, leading the Braves (15-7, 6-4) to their fourth consecutive win against Illinois State (11-10, 3-7) and their seventh win in the last 10 games against the rival Redbirds.
All five Bradley starters scored in double-figures and four of the five had reached the mark by halftime. Senior guard Will Franklin (Houston, Texas/Alief Hastings H.S.) finished with a game-high 22 points, senior center Zach Andrews (Rancho Cordova, Calif./Cordova H.S.) added 19 points, senior guard J.J. Tauai (Verona, Mo./Verona H.S.) chipped in with 12 and junior forward Matt Salley (Charlotte, N.C./North Mecklenberg H.S.) completed the balanced attack with 10 points and game-high seven rebounds. Senior forward Greg Dilligard led Illinois State with 18 points and junior center Levi Dyer added 11 for Illinois State's only double-digit scoring efforts.
In an ironic twist, Dilligard made all eight of his field goal attempts to tie the Carver Arena record for the most makes without a miss. He also set the overall record for field goal percentage by a Bradley opponent, clipping the 7-for-7 effort by two players, most recently ISU coach Porter Moser Jan. 21, 1989 at Creighton.
Feeding off the energy of the crowd, Bradley buried the Redbirds early by making 13 of its first 14 field goal attempts en route to a 28-11 lead just 8:21 into the game. Andrews opened the game with an alley-oop slam from Ruffin, then gave the Braves the lead for good, 6-5, on the second of his three dunks at 17:54. After a Dilligard layup pulled the Redbirds within 11-7, Salley scored the game's next eight points, including a two-handed dunk of his own that gave the Braves a double-digit lead, 17-7, they would not relinquish.
Shooting 71.0 percent (22-31) for the half, despite missing three layups, Bradley built its advantage to as many as 24 points, before settling for a 54-32 lead at the break. The Braves also made 8-of-12 3-pointers in the first half, pushing their season total to 226 and breaking the single-season school record of 224 set during the 1987-88 season.
Illinois State made a brief attempt to rally to start the second half, closing to within 18 points on two occassions, the last at 61-43 when Osiris Eldridge made two free throws after a technical foul on the Bradley bench with 13:06 left in the game. Ruffin his a 10-foot baseline jumper to push the lead back to 20 and the the Braves eventually pushed the margin to as many as 30, 88-58, on Franklin's sixth 3-pointer of the night with 3:30 left.
Bradley, which entered the game second nationally in 3-point field goal percentage (.440) and fourth with 10.4 treys per game, made only 3-of-14 attempts in the second half to finish 11-for-26 (.423) for the night. With 229 3-pointers on the year, the Missouri Valley Conference single-season record of 293 treys by Creighton in 2004-05 is well within reach.
Having won five of its last six games, Bradley will head out on the road for three of its next four contests, beginning with a Saturday night clash at Missouri State (14-7, 5-5). The Braves will return home to host league preseason favorite and current co-leader Creighton (13-7, 7-3) in a 7:35 p.m. clash next Wednesday in a game that will be televised by The Valley on the Fox Sports Network. After handing out red “rally towels” to everyone in attendance againt Illinois State, Bradley will distribute red pom-pons for next week's game against the Bluejays.
