PEORIA, Ill. --
Bradley senior guard Jeremy Crouch (Pekin, Ill./Pekin H.S.) tied his career-best by draining 7-of-9 3-pointers en route to a game-high 25 points and his senior backcourt mate Daniel Ruffin (Peoria, Ill./Peoria H.S.) achieved a historical milestone as the duo led the Braves (6-2) to a 90-72 non-conference men's basketball victory versus Southeast Missouri State (4-4) Saturday night at Carver Arena.
With his seventh point on a free throw with 9:37 left in the game, Ruffin became just the fourth player in Missouri Valley Conference history to reach 1,000 points and 500 assists in his career. The nation's active career assists leader, Ruffin dished out eight assists to push his career total to 533 and his 10 points on the night gives him 1,003 in his brilliant career. The 5-foot-10 point guard also shared team-high honors with seven rebounds. Junior center David Collins (Toronto, Ontario/Emery Collegiate Institute) chipped in with a career-best 14 points by sinking 6-of-7 field goal attempts.
The majority of Southeast Missouri State's offensive production came from its bench as reserves Brandon Foust (17 points), Jaycen Herring (13) and Kenard Moore (11) combined for 41 of SEMO's 72 points. Starting forward Calvin Williams pulled down a game-high nine rebounds, while former Brave Michael Rembert finished with five points and three rebounds in 13 foul-plagued minutes in his return to Carver Arena.
After slow starts in each of the last three games, Crouch helped the Braves to a quick start Saturday, hitting consecutive 3-pointers to start the game's scoring. After SEMO closed a 17-7 gap to 17-13, Collins made two free throws and Crouch drained his third trey to key a 13-2 run to break the game open. The Redhawks got not closer than nine points the rest of the night.
Bradley took a 46-30 lead into halftime, but the Redhawks eventually closed to within 60-51 when Jimmy Drew hit a 3-pointer with 11:17 left. Crouch halted SEMO's 8-0 run with his sixth 3-pointer to put the lead back into double-digits, 63-51, and his seventh trey with 8:12 remaining gave the Braves a 71-54 advantage. The Braves eventually built the lead to a game-high 26 points, 87-61, with 2:37 to go before cruising into the finish.
Although SEMO finished with a slightly better field goal percentage, .464 compared to .452, Brdley drained 11-of-25 3-point tries, outrebounded the Redhawks, 40-33, and forced 23 turnovers, including 13 from steals. The defensive pressure helped the Braves to a 25-13 advantage in transition points.
Having extended its non-conference home winning streak to 29 games, Bradley figures to get a stiff challenge from its next home opponent. The Braves will host #10 Michigan State Tuesday in an 8:05 p.m. game that will be televised nationally on ESPNU. Michigan State becomes the first Big Ten team to visit Carver Arena since #15 Illinois during the 1999-2000 season and the Spartans are expected to be the highest ranked team to visit Peoria since the Braves knocked off #8 Tulsa, 82-79, in the final regular-season game at Robertson Memorial Fieldhouse Feb. 27, 1982. Tuesday's game is sold out to the general public and only a limited number of student tickets remain for the clash against the Spartans.
