PEORIA, Ill. ? Junior guard Dodie Dunson scored a game-high 18 points and Bradley turned in another impressive defensive effort en route to a 65-50 Missouri Valley Conference home victory versus Wichita State (9-12, 3-7 MVC) Wednesday night at Carver Arena. Bradley (13-8, 7-3 MVC) snapped Wichita State's three-game winning streak by limiting the visiting Shockers to 34.7 percent shooting from the field, including an 11-minute, 8-second stretch without a field goal in the first half.
Bradley's win, coupled with Northern Iowa's home victory versus Illinois State Wednesday night in Cedar Falls, leaves the Braves alone in second place in the league standings heading into Saturday afternoon's clash against the rival Redbirds.
Bradley senior forward Theron Wilson added 11 points and six rebounds for the Braves, while Wichita State received double-digit scoring efforts by forward J.T. Turley (12 points) and guard Clevin Hannah (10). Turler added a game-high eight rebounds and Dunson paced the Braves on the boards by collecting seven caroms.
Wichita State started quickly by making four of its first seven field goal attempts and took a 12-5 lead on a deep Hannah 3-pointer from the top of the key with 15:17 left in the first half. After Hannah answered a David Collins bucket with an old-fashioned 3-point play with 13:35 left in the half, however, the Shockers missed their next 12 field goal attempts before Toure' Murry buried a 3-pointer with 2:27 left in the period. Bradley took advantage of the cold spell by embarking on a 17-3 run during that stretch, but failed to close out the half and allowed the Shockers to pull within 30-25 at the break.
Wichita State made just 7-of-25 (.280) field goal attempts in the first half, but did outscore the Braves by four at the free throw line by sinking 9-of-13 attempts from the stripe.
The Shockers also started the second half well and pulled into a 34-34 tie on an A.J. Hawkins 3-point play with 15:46 left in the game, but the Braves countered with a 14-2 outburst to seize control. Five different players scored during the run, which began with a pair of Maniscalco free throws and ended with a 3-pointer by the sophomore co-captain that gave the Braves a 48-36 lead with 10:32 remaining.
Wichita State got no closer than nine points the rest of the way as Wilson helped put the game out of reach with an authoritative follow slam with 4:12 remaining and an acrobatic layup with 2:24 left to give the Braves a game-high 16-point lead, 62-46.
After shooting 41.7 percent from the field in the first half, Bradley made 12-of-24 field goal attempts in the second period. The Braves shot at least 50 percent from 3-point range in both halves, hitting 5-of-10 in the first and 4-of-7 in the second to finish 9-for-17 overall. The home team also committed only three second-half turnovers and outrebounded The Valley's top rebounding squad, 32-30.
After winning both ends of its two-game home stand to complete season sweeps of both Indiana State and Wichita State, Bradley will return to the road for three of its next four games, beginning with Saturday afternoon's Interstate 74 Rivalry game against Illinois State. The Braves earned a 56-52 victory in the first matchup Jan. 6 at Carver Arena to deliver Illinois State's first loss of the season. Saturday's game will tip off at 3:05 p.m. from Redbird Arena and will be televised throughout Central Illinois on Comcast and Mediacom cable outlets.
