Braves Play at Chicago State on Saturday

Men's Basketball 12/15/2017 11:22:00 AM

Bradley (8-2) at Chicago State (2-11)
Game Details	Saturday, Dec. 16 • 2 p.m. • Chicago, Ill. • Jacoby Dickens Center
Television	WAC Digital Network
Radio	1470 WMBD
Game Notes	Bradley \| Chicago State
Game Coverage	Live Stats \| Twitter: @bradleyumbb \| Instagram: @bradleyumbb

The Braves begin a four-game road trip on Saturday with a contest at Chicago State. Bradley makes its first non-conference visit to Chicago for the first in five years with tipoff set for 2 p.m.

ABOUT THE BRAVES
• Bradley has matched its best start in the last 32 years with an 8-2 record, coming off its most dominating win of the year against Little Rock on Wednesday, 86-46.
• Sophomore Darrell Brown leads the Braves with 12.6 points and 3.3 assists per game.
• Nate Kennell and Donte Thomas are second and third on the team in scoring with 9.2 and 8.6 points, respectively.
• Freshman Elijah Childs leads Bradley with 6.9 rebounds, while Thomas is second at 6.0.
• BU is averaging 68.0 points, shooting 43.7 percent from the floor and 37.8 percent from 3-point range.
• The strength of the team so far is on defense where BU features the nation's fifth-ranked defense, allowing only 58.5 points per game, 36.3 percent of field goals and 26.1 percent from 3-point range.

SERIES HISTORY
• Bradley has won all 15 games with the Cougars dating back to the schools' first meeting in 1971.
• The Braves have defeated Chicago State more times without a loss than any other team it has played in its history.
• Last year, BU ran away with a 35-point win, 83-48, at Carver Arena. Dwayne Lautier-Ogunleye and Luuk van Bree led Bradley with 15 points.
• The schools are meeting for just the second time at Chicago State with Bradley posting a 76-70 victory in its last trip in 1993.

BRAVES VERSUS WAC
• The Braves are 31-15 all-time against current members of the WAC.
• Of Bradley's 46 meetings with teams from the WAC, 40 are against either Chicago State of former MVC member New Mexico State (13-12).

ABOUT THE COUGARS
• Chicago State enters the contest with a 2-11 mark, losing its last seven games. The Cougars were last in action Monday, falling at Northwestern, 96-31.
• The Cougars are 2-1 at home this season with its two wins coming against Silver Lake and East-West before a 95-77 setback to Northern Illinois.
• Fred Sims, Jr. leads the Cougars with 14.8 points per game, while Deionte Simmons is second with 9.0 in addition to a team-best 5.2 rebounds.
• Overall, the Cougars are averaging 66.8 points per game this season, while allowing 85.9.

STRONG START
• The Braves are 8-2 through 10 games during the 2017-18 campaign, matching the program's best start in any of the last 32 seasons (also in 1987-88, 1993-94 and 2004-05).
• The Braves last started better when they were 9-1 through 10 games in the 1985-86 season.

NON-CONFERENCE SUCCESS
• With eight wins, Bradley has already posted its most non-conference victories since the 2012-13 season.
• Bradley can win as many as 11 non-conference games this year, which would mark its most since the 1987-88 season.

DOMINANT VICTORY
• Bradley is coming off one its most dominant victories in a long time with the 86-46 win versus Little Rock on Wednesday.
• The 40-point win was the largest for the Braves against a Division I opponent since an 80-39 victory against Northern Iowa on Feb. 5, 2000.
• Bradley's 60.8 percent from the field was its highest since shooting 63.2 percent against Drake on Feb. 26, 2011.
• Additionally, BU made at least 60 percent of its shots in each half in a game for the first time since a win against Creighton on Dec. 30, 1992.
• Bradley raced out to a 46-21 lead at halftime – its largest lead at the break since a 53-28 edge versus Maryland-Eastern Shore on Nov. 18, 2007.

TOP-RANKED DEFENSE
• While the offense exploded for 86 points on Wednesday, the Braves have hung their hat on a strong defense during the 2017-18 campaign.
• Bradley is allowing only 58.5 points per game, ranking fifth in the country.
• The Braves also place in the top 10 in both field goal percentage defense (eighth at 36.3%) and 3-point defense (fourth at 26.1%).

DEFENSIVE NOTES
• When you own the nation's eighth-ranked defense, a lot of numbers stand out.
• Bradley has allowed only one team to reach 70 points this year. BU went the first eight games of the year without allowing a team to hit the mark for the first time since the 1947-48 season.
• With the fourth-best 3-point defense in the country, only two teams have shot better than 30 percent from beyond the arc, while six times in 10 games a team has shot 25 percent or worse.
• Bradley has forced its opponent to go without a field goal for at least four minutes on 25 occasions this year and at least twice in all 10 games.
• BU ranks in the top three of the MVC in every defensive stat – 3-point defense (1st), field goal defense (2nd), steals (2nd), blocks (3rd) and turnovers forced (3rd).

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