PEORIA, Ill. - Bradley sophomore guard Dyricus Simms-Edwards scored a career-high for the third time in four games, pumping in a game-high 25 points and added a career-best eight rebounds to lead the Braves (9-17, 3-12 MVC) to their third win during the same four games, a 68-54 triumph over Missouri Valley Conference rival Evansville (14-11, 8-7 MVC) Saturday night at Carver Arena.
The Braves overcame a slow start and foul trouble by Valley scoring leader Andrew Warren to earn their eighth consecutive home game against Evansville. Despite seeing his string of consecutive games playing at least 30 minutes snapped at 27, Warren still managed 17 points to become the 12th player in Bradley history to eclipse 1,500 career points, pushing his four-year total to 1,510 points.
Senior guard Dodie Dunson complemented the duo's scoring effort with 12 points. Evansville sophomore guard Colt Ryan was the only visitor to reach double-figures, leading the Purple Aces with 14 points.
Bradley missed eight of its first nine shots from the field, including its first eight, but the Purple Aces failed to capitalize and managed only a 7-2 lead in the first five-and-a-half minutes. Reserve swingman Jake Eastman scored an offensive putback basket to start an 11-6 Bradley surge that allowed the Braves to pull even, 13-13, with 10:16 left in the first half. Warren capped the run with a pair of 3-pointers, and after some back-and-forth play, freshman forward Jordan Prosser gave the Braves the lead for good, 21-19, by finishing off a Simms-Edwards feed with 6:19 left in the half.
After taking a 32-29 lead into halftime, Bradley built its margin to nine points, 44-35, before the first media timeout of the second half then grabbed its first double-digit advantage, 52-42, on a Dunson 3-pointer with 11:25 remaining.
Although still with plenty of time for the Purple Aces to rally, the signature sequence of the game happened when the clock dipped under nine minutes. The Braves ran a complete minute off the game clock by snaring three offensive rebounds, one each by Eastman, Walt Lemon Jr. and Prosser, and the Braves finally capitalized when Simms-Edwards buried a wing 3-pointer for a 57-43 bulge with 7:58 remaining. Evansville did not threaten the rest of the way as the lead grew to as many as 18 points down the stretch.
Bradley limited the Purple Aces to 39.6 percent shooting from the field and the visitors also hurt themselves by shooting just 56.0 percent (14-25) from the free throw line. Bradley, which recovered from its slow start to shoot 44.6 percent from the field for the game, won the battle of the boards, 41-29, and outscored Evansville 11-2 in second-chance points.
Bradley will complete its two game home stand Tuesday night when it hosts Northern Iowa at 7:00 p.m. in a game to be televised by the MVC-TV Network (live on FS Midwest, Comcast SportsNet Chicago and FS Kansas City.
