PEORIA, Ill. - Mamadou Seck's 15 points, 11 rebounds and six assists paced Southern Illinois (5-9, 2-1 MVC) to a 74-65 Missouri Valley Conference men's basketball win at Bradley (5-10, 0-3 MVC) Wednesday night at Carver Arena.
The visiting Salukis became the fifth straight visiting team to win in the in-state rivalry, a first against any opponent in Bradley Basketball history. The Braves also dropped their sixth consecutive game overall and 13 consecutive January game dating back to 2010.
Coming off the bench for the first time this season, junior guard Dyricus Simms-Edwards led Bradley with a game-high 17 points. Walt Lemon, Jr. added 16 points, Taylor Brown 13 points and eight rebounds and Jordan Prosser chipped in with 11 points for the Braves. In addition to Seck's performance, Southern Illinois got a pair of 12-point efforts from Kendal Brown-Surles and reserve forward Davante Drinkard.
Southern Illinois missed eight of its first nine shots to start the game, but the Salukis rarely missed after a Dantiel Daniels putback with 14:29 left in the first half gave the visitors a 4-3 lead. SIU made 16 of its final 18 field goal attempts to close the half and shot 51.7 percent in the second half to finish the game 31-for-54 (.574).
Despite SIU's hot shooting, the game remained tight - 17 ties and 11 lead changes - until the closing stretch. Simms-Edwards pulled Bradley to within 60-56 on a fast break basket with 6:30 left, but the Braves did not score another basket until Prosser scored inside with 1:17 remaining. Prosser's basket got Bradley to within 70-63, but the Braves got no closer in the final minute.
Bradley will continue its only 2-game Valley home stand of the season by hosting #24 Creighton Saturday night at Carver Arena in the annual Hall of Fame game. The 5-member induction class of Rob Dye (Men's Basketball), Bryan Namoff (Soccer), Kim Suffield (Softball), Stephen Wylie (Soccer) and Angie Zimmerman (Cross Country/Track) will be enshrined in the Bradley Athletics Hall of Fame during a halftime ceremony Saturday and will be the honored guests at Friday's Braves Club Gameday Luncheon.
In addition to the Hall of Fame ceremony, Voice of the Braves Dave Snell will participate in his 1,000th Bradley Basketball radio broadcast on 1470 WMBD Saturday night and will be honored in a pregame ceremony.
