PEORIA, Ill. - Bradley senior guard Walt Lemon, Jr. scored a game-high 25 points, leading the Braves (11-14, 6-6 MVC) to an 83-66 Missouri Valley Conference victory versus Evansville (10-15, 3-9 MVC) Sunday afternoon at Carver Arena.
Bradley, which has won five of its last seven games since a 1-4 start to the league season, has climbed into a 4-way tie for third in Valley standings with Illinois State, Missouri State and Southern Illinois. The Braves will host second-place Indiana State Wednesday - 7 p.m. at Carver Arena - before visiting Illinois State Saturday and Southern Illinois Feb. 18.
Bradley's starters combined for 80 of Bradley's 83 points, which equal the most the Braves have scored in regulation in a MVC game since a 90-64 win versus Drake Feb. 26, 2011. Senior forward Tyshon Pickett added 20 points, while freshman center Xzavier Taylor contributed his first career double-double by scoring a career-best 14 points to go along with his career-best 11 rebounds. Omari Grier also scored in double-figures with 13 points and fifth starter, forward Auston Barnes added eight.
D.J. Balentine, the league's scoring leader, led the Purple Aces with 23 points. Evansville forward Blake Simmons scored a career-best 18 points and center Egidiju Mockevicius also posted a double-double with 14 points and 14 rebounds.
Simmons and Balentine both drained 3-pointers for an early, 6-2 Evansville lead, but Taylor scored on a putback basket and Pickett followed with a 3-point play for a 7-6 Bradley lead the Braves would not relinquish.
Though the Braves led throughout, they did not break it open until midway through the second half, stretching a 54-44 lead with 12:20 remaining to 65-46 following a Lemon lefty drive with 8:56 left. Evansville got not closer than 15 points the rest of the way.
Led by Pickett and Taylor, Bradley outscored the Purple Aces in the paint, 44-28, and the Braves held a 20-4 advantage in transition points. In the biggest turnaround from Evansville's 66-60 win Jan. 26 when the Purple Aces outscored Bradley by 17 points at the free throw line, both teams attempted 24 charity shots Sunday. Bradley made 18-of-24, compared to 19-of-24 by Evansville.
With his 11th 20+ point effort of the season, Lemon jumped eight places on The Valley's all-time scoring list to 57th with his 1,586 career points, surpassing the likes of Benoit Benjamin, Lewis Lloyd, Butch Beard and Shea Seals during the course of the game.
