PEORIA, Ill. ? In his final regular-season home game, Bradley senior forward Theron Wilson turned in another stellar performance, finishing with 21 points and nine rebounds and matching his career high with six assists by snaring Drake's final desperation attempt to lead the Braves (17-13, 10-8 MVC) to a 77-75, double-overtime victory against Drake (17-14, 7-11 MVC) Saturday night at Carver Arena. With the win, Bradley finishes alone in fourth place in the final Missouri Valley Conference standings and will face No. 5 seed Southern Illinois (13-17, 8-10) in Friday's second quarterfinal game at 2:35 p.m. of the State Farm MVC Tournament at Scottrade Center in St. Louis.
Bradley sophomore guard Sam Maniscalco scored a career-best 23 points to lead all scorers, while fifth-year senior Sam Singh matched a career-high with 13 points and grabbed a career-best eight rebounds. As it turns out, however, those numbers did not come in his final career home game. Singh announced after the game he has been granted a retroactive medical hardship under revised NCAA rules and will return for a sixth year in 2009-10. The 6-foot-9 center underwent season-ending shoulder surgery as a true freshman in 2004-05, as well as a pair of knee surgeries in his first two seasons, limiting him to just 12 games in his first two years on The Hilltop. Junior guard Chris Roberts added 10 points for the Braves.
Drake junior guard Josh Young scored 18 of his team-high 21 points after halftime and reserve guard Josh Parker also heated up after the break by scoring 14 of his 17 points following the intermission. Senior center Brent Heemskerk, the younger brother of former Bradley center Brandyn Heemskerk, added a double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds, while senior forward Jonathan Cox grabbed a game-high 13 rebounds to offset his off scoring night.
Bradley got off to a slow start offensively, but overcame the cold start to pull within 29-28 at halftime. After Bradley took a brief lead on Wilson's jumper to start the second half, Young countered with a layup at the other end before the Bulldogs unleashed a 3-point barrage against the Braves. Drake buried five threes ? two from Young, one from Craig Stanley and the final two by Parker ? in a span of 5-minutes, 22-seconds to highlight a 19-7 run that gave the Bulldogs a 48-37 lead with 12:50 remaining in regulation.
Maniscalco (10) and Wilson (8) combined for 18 points during a 21-10 Bradley surge that knotted the game at 58-58 with 2:13 left. Stanley gave the lead back to Drake, 60-58, on a long jumper with 1:07 left and the Bulldogs were in position to put the game away after Maniscalco's 3-point try with 41 seconds left rattled out. McCain committed three consecutive fouls to get Drake into the bonus and Parker missed the front end of a 1-and-1 situation with 33 seconds to go. On the ensuing Bradley possession, Maniscalco drove the right side of the lane, finding Singh with a difficult wrap-around pass and the Bradley center converted his layup for force a 60-60 tie with 16 seconds left. Parker missed an off-balanced 3-point try at the buzzer to set up the first overtime.
Bradley held a 71-67 advantage after Singh made the first of two free throws with 31 seconds left in first extra stanza, but Young made free throws with 18 seconds left, and after Maniscalco split his two charity attempts with 17 seconds to go, Drake's Adam Templeton buried a corner trey with 9 seconds left for a 72-72 tie. Bradley hurried the ball up the floor, but Maniscalco was stripped going up for a 3-point try and a scrum for the ball ultimately left Bradley trying an inbounds play from the right wing with 0.3 seconds remaining. On s night when Bradley shot just 6-for-25 (.240) from 3-point range, freshman point guard Eddren McCain lobbed an inbounds pass toward the basket, where Wilson appeared to dunk the game's winning points. The referees determined, however, that McCain's pass was in the cylinder and waved off the bucket, instead granting Drake a similar desperation try from the same spot and with the 0.3 seconds still remaining.
All of the scoring in the second overtime was done from the free throw line, capped by Maniscalco's two attempts with 1:16 remaining for the final 77-75 margin. Cox had two good looks at the basket with five seconds remaining. In the fight for the rebound of the second miss, Wilson batted the ball out of bounds near midcourt, then intercepted the inbounds pass with 0.5 seconds left to seal the game.
While Drake finished the game 13-for-31 (.419) from the 3-point line to equal the fourth-best 3-point total ever by a Bradley opponent, the Braves countered at the free throw line. Bradley made 25-of-29 (.862) free throw attempts, compared to a 6-for-11 (.545) effort by Drake, which was 0-for-3 from the stripe until Young finally made two attempts with 4:43 left in the second overtime. With Bradley leading 70-66 with 43 seconds left in that period, however, Young was fouled on a 3-point attempt, but missed his first two shots from the line.
In addition to helping Bradley to Saturday's win, Wilson joined Bradley's most elite company with his all-around play this season. He joins Bradley legend Hersey Hawkins (1987-88) as the only Braves in the 31 years the school has tracked steals to complete a regular-season with at least 400 points (417), 200 rebounds (214), 50 assists (53) and 50 steals (58).
Southern Illinois, Evansville and Wichita State all finished in a three-way tie for fifth in the league standings with 8-10 Valley records, but the Salukis won the tie-breaker based on their record against the other two teams. Evansville will be the No. 6 seed and will play No. 3 seed Illinois State in Friday's final quarterfinal game, while Wichita State lands in Thursday's first round as the No. 7 seed. As the No. 8 seed, Drake will play No. 9 seed Indiana State in Thursday's tournament opener.
