Braves Meet Redhawks in Wednesday Matinee Game

Justin Fine

Men's Basketball 12/19/2017 10:00:00 AM

Bradley (9-2) at Southeast Missouri State (6-5)
Game Details	Wednesday, Dec. 20 • 1 p.m. • Cape Girardeau, Mo. • Show Me Center
Television	OVC Digital Network
Radio	1470 WMBD
Game Notes	Bradley \| Southeast Missouri State
Game Coverage	Live Stats \| Twitter: @bradleyumbb \| Instagram: @bradleyumbb

Bradley continues its four-game road trip with a contest at Southeast Missouri State on Wednesday afternoon. The 9-2 Braves are set to meet the 6-5 Redhawks with tipoff scheduled for 1 p.m.

ABOUT THE BRAVES
• Bradley has matched its best start in the last 32 years with a 9-2 record, coming off two convincing wins against Little Rock and Chicago State.
• Sophomore Darrell Brown leads the Braves with 12.5 points and 3.9 assists per game.
• Nate Kennell and Donte Thomas are second and third on the team in scoring with 9.2 and 9.0 points, respectively.
• Freshman Elijah Childs leads Bradley with 6.5 rebounds, while Thomas is second at 6.0.
• BU is averaging 69.5 points, shooting 44.7 percent from the floor and 39.8 percent from 3-point range.
• The strength of the team so far is on defense where BU features the nation's fourth-ranked defense, allowing only 58.5 points per game, 36.7 percent of field goals and 26.6 percent from 3-point range.

SERIES HISTORY
• Bradley owns a 7-2 all-time edge against the Redhawks, winning each of the last five games.
• The schools are meeting for just the second time at SEMO with the Redhawks claiming the lone game, 79-71, in 1997.
• Last season, Bradley never trailed en route to an 84-78 victory against the Redhawks at Carver Arena. Three Braves scored in double figures, while the team shot 54.2 percent overall from the field.

BRAVES VERSUS OVC
• Bradley is 33-17 all-time against current members of the Ohio Valley Conference.
• BU has won its last eight games against current members, including one earlier this season with a 67-56 victory against Eastern Illinois.

ABOUT THE REDHAWKS
• Southeast Missouri State is 6-5 on the season. The Redhawks had their four-game winning streak snapped on Saturday after an 89-71 loss at Kansas State.
• Denzel Mahoney leads SEMO with 19.4 points per game, shooting 53.5 percent from the floor and 48.6 percent from 3-point range.
• Daniel Simmons (12.5), Ledarrisu Brewer (11.7) and Justin Carpenter (10.8) also average in double figures. Carpenter also leads the team with 5.8 rebounds per game.
• The Redhawks average 78.0 points per game, while allowing 76.0 points.

STRONG START
• The Braves are 9-2 through 11 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 began the 1985-86 season with a 31-1 record.

NON-CONFERENCE SUCCESS
• With nine wins, Bradley has already posted its most non-conference victories since 2012-13.
• With one more win, the Braves will own their most non-conference victories since 2006-07 and a sweep of its final two games will be their most since 1987-88.
• Bradley has seen a steady rise in its performance under the three years with Coach Wardle. With the nation's youngest team in 2015-16, BU was 2-11 before a 5-8 non-conference mark last year with the NCAA's fourth-youngest squad.

DOMINATING WEEK
• The Braves are enjoying one of their bests non-conference seasons in years and are coming off their two most impressive performances.
• Bradley started with an 86-46 win against Little Rock – the team's largest DI win since an 80-39 victory over Northern Iowa on Feb. 5, 2000.
• BU then followed with an 86-58 win at Chicago State – the team's largest road victory since topping Drake also by 26 (79-53) on Feb. 1, 1997.
• Bradley also won consecutive games by 25 or more for the first time since 2006-07, while the 66 combined margin of victory is BU's largest in back-to-back games since 1980 when it beat Valparaiso (100-47) and Ball State (106-73) by 86 points.

OFFENSIVE OUTBURST
• The key to BU's dominant week was an offensive outburst to match its top-ranked defense.
• The Braves entered the week averaging 66.0 points per game before posting 85.0 in its two convincing wins.
• BU is now averaging 69.5 points per game on 44.7 percent shooting and 39.8 percent in 3-pointers.

TOP-RANKED DEFENSE
• While the offense has exploded as of late, 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 fourth in the country.
• The Braves also place in the top 10 in both field goal percentage defense (eighth at 36.7%) and 3-point defense (seventh at 26.6%).

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