Bradley Basketball Postgame Notes
Feb. 17, 2016 – Bradley at Southern Illinois

Final Score (W-L)          1   2   F
Bradley (4-24, 2-13 MVC)  34  25  59
SIU (21-7, 10-5 MVC)      36  35  71
Attendance: 5,002 | Officials: Paul Janssen, Rick Randall, Winston Stith

O'Brien's Big Night
On a night that saw Missouri Valley Conference scoring leader Anthony Beane struggle through an 0-for-12 shooting start, Southern Illinois forward Sean O'Brien picked up the slack by scoring a game-high 24 points, leading the host Salukis to a 71-59 win against Bradley Wednesday night at SIU Arena. O'Brien's effort included a back-breaking 3-pointer on a busted play with 2:01 remaining that pushed the SIU lead to 66-55. O'Brien finished the night 11-for-13 from the floor.

Series Update
Southern Illinois earned its third consecutive win against Bradley and narrowed its gap in the all-time series to 46-44. First-year Bradley head coach Brian Wardle, who was 0-2 against Southern Illinois during his 5-year stint at Green Bay, falls to 0-4 all-time against the Salukis. Fourth-year SIU head coach Barry Hinson improved to 15-11 all-time against Bradley, including a 4-4 mark with the Salukis.

Leaders
The only non-freshman Bradley suited up, sophomore forward Donte Thomas led the Braves with 17 points and six rebounds. Freshman guard Dwayne Lautier-Ogunleye added 10 points for the Braves. In addition to O'Brien's effort, Southern Illinois got 14 points from point guard Mike Rodriguez, while forward Bola Olaniyan just missed a double-double with nine points and 11 rebounds.

Injury Bug Takes a Bite
Two members of Bradley's regular playing rotation were sidelined with injuries Wednesday night. Freshman forward Luuk van Bree missed his first game of the season after suffering a foot injury during Tuesday morning's practice in Peoria and senior guard Ka'Darryl Bell missed his second straight game, and 10th game overall, with a shoulder injury. Van Bree is Bradley's fourth-leading scorer (8.5 ppg) overall, but second-leading scorer (9.5 ppg) in league play, and he leads all Missouri Valley Conference freshmen with 41 3-pointers. Leading the Braves with 10 points and six rebounds with 11:20 left in the first half and the Braves trailing 46-40, Donte Thomas pulled up with a calf cramp. The Braves came out of the resulting timeout with five freshmen on the floor, including a pair of players who typically play low minutes. Thomas checked back in just one minute later, but a 7-0 SIU run in the two minutes immediately following his cramp pushed the SIU lead to double-digits, 53-40, for the first time in the game.

Stepping Up
With the Braves already short-handed due to a pair of injuries, Bradley's depth was put to the immediate test when starting guard Ronnie Suggs collected two fouls in the game's first 1-minute, 6-seconds. Freshman Joel Okafor, who had totaled just four minutes in the previous eight games, replaced Suggs at 18:54 of the first half and played 16 first-half minutes, posting two points, five assists and two rebounds. Donte Thomas, who was leading the Braves with eight points at the time, picked up his second foul at 9:39 of the first half and he was replaced by freshman Scottie James, who had played double-digit minutes just once since suffering a concussion Jan. 3 versus Wichita State. James had two points and a team-best four rebounds in eight first-half minutes. With four starters collecting two first-half fouls, non-scholarship freshman forward Peter Hanley also played seven first-half minutes, scoring a career-best six points in the opening half. Freshman center Davante Cooper had played double-digit minutes just once in the last 11 games, but registered four points and a rebound in 11 first-half minutes.

Turnovers Prove Costly
Bradley committed 23 turnovers Wednesday, against just eight for the Salukis. Southern Illinois capitalized on the advantage, finishing with a 31-11 margin in points off turnovers.

Leading Scorers Start Slow
Missouri Valley Conference scoring leader entering the game, SIU senior guard Anthony Beane (20.4 ppg), was held scoreless in the first half on 0-for-7 shooting. Bradley freshman guard Ronnie Suggs, who entered the game leading the Braves at 10.3 ppg in conference play, picked up two early fouls and played a scoreless six minutes in the first half. Still scoreless on 0-for-12 shooting going into the final media timeout of the game, Beane buried 3-pointers on consecutive possessions coming out of the timeout, stretching a 57-52 lead to 63-54 with 3:04 left. Beane finished with six points, while Suggs did not score for the first time this season.

Youthful PT
With senior guard Ka'Darryl Bell unavailable for action Wednesday due to a shoulder injury, Bradley's nine available players at Southern Illinois included eight freshmen. As has been the case the entire season, Bradley played the entire 40 minutes with at least three freshmen on the floor together. Wednesday's game was the 11th in which the Braves played at least four freshmen together for the entire game and Bradley now has played 956 of 1130 team minutes (84.6 percent) this season with at least four freshmen on the floor together.

Up Next
Bradley will play host to Drake Saturday (7 p.m.) for the 1,000th Missouri Valley Conference game in program history. Fittingly, Drake is the most-common opponent in Bradley Basketball history. Saturday's game will be preceded by the final Braves Club Game Day Luncheon of the year Friday at the Renaissance Coliseum Basketball Performance Center. The Braves will close out the 2015-16 home schedule Tuesday night (8 p.m.) by hosting Evansville. Tuesday's halftime will include the drawing in the annual Braves Club Raffle, presented by South Side Trust and Savings Bank, with 10 prizes to be awarded, ranging from $500 to $25,000.