PEORIA, Ill. -- With two of his high-scoring backcourt mates unavailable, Bradley senior guard Jeremy Crouch (Pekin, Ill./Pekin H.S.) turned in one of the best all-around games of his career with 24 points, eight rebounds, five assists and two steals, leading the Braves (17-12) to an 84-72 victory versus Wisconsin-Milwaukee in the O'Reilly ESPNU BracketBusters Saturday night at Carver Arena.
The Braves were without sophomore guard Andrew Warren (13.1 ppg), who missed his second straight game with a broken left hand, and senior point guard Daniel Ruffin (14.5 ppg), who has been suspended indefinitely following his arrest early Saturday morning.
Bradley received contributions from all seven players who saw action, including double-digit scoring performances from four players. Junior forward Theron Wilson (Topeka, Kan./Highland Park H.S.) scored 15 points, freshman guard Sam Maniscalco (Chicago, Ill./St. Patrick H.S.) added 13 points and junior guard Tyrone Cole-Scott (Waterloo, Iowa/East H.S.) scored a career-best 13 points off the bench. Charlie Swiggett was the only Milwaukee player to reach double-figures with 13 points off the bench, but all 10 Panthers scored and nine of the 10 contributed at least five points.
The first 15 minutes of the game featured four ties and a pair of lead changes before the Braves made a defensive stand to gain some separation. Trailing 25-21 after a Deonte Roberts layup with 7:12 left in the first half, Bradley scored the next 13 points and closed the half on a 17-5 run. Six different Braves scored during the half-ending surge, which began with a Rashad Austin layup with 6:53 left and included a Sam Singh basket with six seconds left in the period for a 38-27 lead. Milwaukee stole some of the momentum, however, when Ricky Franklin buried a 3-pointer at the buzzer for a 38-30 halftime score.
The Panthers closed to within 46-43 on a Swiggett free throw with 14:15 left in the game, but Crouch scored eight points in a 10-2 Bradley run to push the lead to double-digits again, 56-45. After Roberts scored inside to pull the Panthers to within 56-47, Maniscalco answered with a 3-pointer to give the Braves a lasting double-digit lead, 59-47, with 11:07 to go. Back-to-back Cole-Scott buckets ultimately delivered Bradley's biggest margin, 74-55, with 6:09 remaining.
Crouch made 4-of-8 3-pointers Saturday to pull within one of Bradley's career record and two of the single-season mark, both held by Aaron Zobrist. Crouch owns 232 career treys and 88 on the season. Crouch also bumped his season steals total to 44, leaving him six shy of becoming just the fifth player in school history to score 400 points (431), grab 100 rebounds (109), dish 75 assists (87) and snare 50 steals (44) in a season.
With nine wins in their last 11 games, the Braves will close out their regular-season home schedule Tuesday by hosting Southern Illinois (16-12, 10-6) in a 6 p.m. game at Carver Arena that will be televised nationally on ESPN2. Bradley will enter Tuesday's game tied for fourth in the Missouri Valley Conference standings, one game behind the third-place Salukis.
