Bradley (8-12, 3-4 MVC)
at
Evansville (9-11, 2-5 MVC)

When: Sunday, Jan. 26, 2014 | 1:00 p.m.
Where: Evansville, Ind. | Ford Center (11,000)

Game Coverage
TV: MVC-TV | Mitch Holthus (play-by-play) and Rich Zvosec (analyst)
Radio: 1470 WMBD | Dave Snell (play-by-play), Chad Kleine (analyst) and Dan DiOrio (Braves Plus pregame)
Video Streaming: ESPN3 (outside Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas and Missouri)
Audio Streaming: 1470wmbd.com
Live Stats: StatBroadcast.com
Twitter: @BradleySIDLive | #BRADvUE

Bradley Pregame Notes (PDF) | Evansville Basketball Website

Coaches
Bradley: Geno Ford | 33-54 in 3rd year at Bradley; 152-123 in 9th year overall
Evansville: Marty Simmons | 97-114 in 7th year at Evansville; 195-187 in 13th year overall

Series History
Bradley leads overall 24-18 | Evansville leads in Evansville, 14-6
Trend: Evansville has won four of the last six meetings

Tip-Off
Bradley will shoot for its third consecutive win for the first time since opening the 2013-14 campaign with a 4-0 record when the Braves visit Evansville Sunday afternoon ... Coming off consecutive home wins against Southern Illinois and UNI, Bradley is shooting for a third consecutive Missouri Valley Conference win for the first time since a 3-game MVC winning streak Jan. 16-23, 2010 ... Bradley will be trying to snap an 11-game overall away losing streak, as well as an 11-game Valley road slide ... The Braves have not won a Valley road game outside of SIU Arena since an 83-63 victory at Evansville Feb. 6, 2010 ... Bradley senior guard Walt Lemon, Jr. enters Sunday's game with 1,493 points, leaving him just seven shy of becoming the 78th player in Valley history to score at least 1,500 career points.

Television Clearances
Sunday's game is being televised on the MVC-TV Network ... The game will be cleared live on FOX Sports Midwest, FOX Sports Indiana, FOX Sports Kansas City, FOX College Sports Atlantic, Comcast SportsNet Chicago, DirecTV 671, Dish Network 418, AT&T U-Verse 748 and ESPN3 outside Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas and Missouri.

Series History
Sunday's game will be the 43rd meeting in the all-time series between Bradley and Evansville, which dates back to a 77-68 Purple Aces victory Dec. 22, 1986 ... Bradley is 24-18 all-time against Evansville, but the Purple Aces own a 14-6 home record against the Braves, including a 2-0 mark at Ford Center ... In his third year as Bradley's head coach, Geno Ford is 1-3 against Evansville, while 7th-year Purple Aces head coach Marty Simmons is 5-7 against Bradley.

Historic Turnaround
Bradley opened the conference season Jan. 1 with an 80-46 loss at Northern Iowa ... The 34-point defeat was Bradley's seventh consecutive loss ... The Braves immediately bounced back with a 68-57 home win Jan. 4 versus Drake and are 3-3 in the six games since the UNI defeat ... Two of the losses came in road games at Indiana State and Wichita State ... In their last game out, the Braves avenged the loss at UNI with a 69-65 win Wednesday night at Carver Arena, marking the first time Bradley had ever defeated a team it lost to by at least 30 points in the season's previous meeting.

Road Drought
Bradley is 0-8 away from home this season and the Braves have dropped 11 consecutive games played outside Peoria since their 63-62 win Feb. 23, 2013 at Illinois-Chicago ... The Braves also have dropped 11 consecutive Valley road games since their 66-60 win at Southern Illinois Jan. 2, 2013 ... Bradley is 2-30 in its last 32 Valley road games since an 83-63 win at Evansville Feb. 6, 2010 -- both of those two wins came at Southern Illinois (2011, 2013).

Tough Five-Game Start
Bradley easily drew the toughest 5-game start to the MVC season, facing five teams that now boast a 69-27 (.719) overall record ... Three of Bradley's first five Valley games were played on the road against the league's three remaining unbeaten home teams - at UNI, Indiana State and Wichita State (26-0 combined home record).

January's Final Four
After enduring the The Valley's toughest 5-game start, Bradley's league schedule has softened for the remainder of the month ... Bradley is closing out the month of January with four games against teams that now have a combined 36-42 (.462) overall record ... Bradley is playing three of its final four January games at home against a trio of teams that have combined for a 5-18 (.217) road record ... The fourth game of the month is Jan. 26 at Evansville (9-11), which is 7-4 at home.

Turning the Corner
Through the season's first 18 games, Bradley was 0-6 in games decided by six points or less, including consecutive 3-point losses to Missouri State (65-68) Jan. 8 and at Indiana State (59-62) Jan. 11 ... Bradley cleared that close-game hurdle Jan. 17 versus Southern Illinois by pulling out a 66-60 victory, then followed up with a 69-65 win against UNI ... Both of the last two wins were tied with less than four minutes remaining.

Exclusive Club
Senior guard Walt Lemon, Jr. has joined an exclusive Bradley Basketball club, sharing the company of just five other players in program history ... Lemon has became the sixth player in program history to eclipse both 1,400 career points and 300 assists ... He currently boasts 1,493 career points and 321 career assists assists and needs just seven points to join Hersey Hawkins and Anthony Parker as the only Bradley players with 1,500 career points and 300 assists.

Chart Climber
Senior guard Walt Lemon, Jr. has climbed into a tie for 13th on Bradley's all-time scoring list with 1,493 career points, the most among The Valley's active players ... Currently averaging 17.4 ppg, Lemon is on pace to climb to eighth on the school's all-time scoring list by season's end ... If he maintains his current average for at least 12 more games, Lemon will be the highest scoring Brave in the last quarter century since Hersey Hawkins graduated in 1988 ... Lemon also has climbed to seventh in school history with 185 career steals and is on pace to become just the fifth player in program history to record at least 200 steals ... Currently with 321 career assists, if Lemon can produce 43 more assists and 128 more points, he will join Hawkins as the only players in program history to rank among the career top 10 for both points and assists.

MVC 1,500 Club
Bradley senior guard Walt Lemon, Jr. needs just seven points to become the 78th member of the Missouri Valley Conference 1,500-Point Club.
MVC CAREER POINTS

Newcomer Contributions
Bradley's lineup includes seven eligible newcomers and all seven have played in at least 15 of Bradley's first 20 games ... Sophomore guard Omari Grier, a transfer from Florida Atlantic, is Bradley's third-leading scorer at 11.3 ppg and junior forward Auston Barnes (Odessa College) adds 8.5 points and 6.0 rebounds per game.

Window Cleaners
Bradley enters the weekend boasting two of The Valley's top six rebounders ... Senior forward Tyshon Pickett is third in The Valley by averaging 7.4 boards per game, while junior forward Auston Barnes is sixth with 6.0 rebounds per game ... Both players have been particularly effective on the offensive end: Pickett leads The Valley with 2.8 offensive rebounds per game, while Barnes is third with 2.4.

Top Four at the Stripe
Bradley ranks eighth in The Valley by shooting .698 from the free throw line ... Bradley's top four scorers, though, have combined to shoot .797 (204-256) from the stripe: Walt Lemon Jr. (17.4 ppg, .759), Tyshon Pickett (11.6, .750), Omari Grier (11.3, .882) and Auston Barnes (8.5, .800) ... The other 10 Braves have combined to shoot just .496 (64-129) from the line and Ka'Darryl Bell (.618) is the only other Brave shooting better than 52.9 percent from the stripe ... Grier has been hovering around 90 percent at the stripe most of the season and currently leads The Valley at .882, putting him in position to challenge Aaron Zobrist's 1996-97 single-season school record (.906).

Big Media Numbers
Dave Snell has served as the radio Voice of the Braves the last 34 seasons and has worked on 1,071 Bradley Basketball game broadcasts, all in succession, on 1470 WMBD since taking over play-by-play duties for the 1979-80 season ... Peoria Journal Star beat writer Dave Reynolds has covered 735 consecutive Bradley games since taking over the beat for the start of the 1990-91 season ... In his 38th season, public address announcer Paul Herzog has been at the mic for 553 Bradley Basketball home games.

Looking Ahead
Following Sunday afternoon's game at Evansville, Bradley will return home to host Illinois State in the first round of the Interstate 74 Rivalry Wednesday at Carver Arena ... The Jesse White Tumblers will perform at halftime Wednesday ... After Wednesday's game against the rival Redbirds, Bradley will start February by playing four of the month's first six games on the road.