Bradley Meets San Diego State in Mountain West-MVC Challenge

Men's Basketball 12/2/2017 5:49:00 PM

Bradley (7-1) at San Diego State (6-2)
Game Details	Sunday, Dec. 3 • 5 p.m. CT • San Diego, Calif. • Viejas Arena
Television	Mountain West Network/Facebook
Radio	1470 WMBD
Game Notes	Bradley \| San Diego State
Game Coverage	Live Stats \| Twitter: @bradleyumbb \| Instagram: @bradleyumbb

Winners of five-straight, Bradley basketball plays its first true road game of the season on Sunday against San Diego State in the Mountain West-Missouri Valley Challenge Series. First tip is set for 5 p.m. CT.

ABOUT THE BRAVES
• Bradley has matched its best start in the last 32 years with a 7-1 record, which includes five-straight victories.
• Sophomore Darrell Brown leads BU with 12.9 points and 3.3 assists per game.
• Nate Kennell and Donte Thomas are second and third on the team in scoring with 9.8 and 9.3 points, respectively.
• Freshman Elijah Childs leads Bradley with 7.5 rebounds with four Braves overall averaging at least six boards per game.
• BU is averaging 67.8 points, shooting 43.1 percent from the floor and 37.0 percent from 3-point range.
• The strength of the team so far is on defense where Bradley features the nation's fifth-ranked defense, allowing only 58.0 points per game.

STRONG START
• The Braves are 7-1 through eight games during the 2017-18 campaign, matching the program's best start in any of the last 32 seasons (also in 2004-05 and 1987-88).
• The Braves have not started a year 8-1 or better since beginning the 1985-86 campaign with nine-straight victories.

WE'RE GOING STREAKING!
• The strong start to the season has produced a current five-game winning streak for the Braves.
• The five-game run is the longest for BU since also winning five-straight during the 2008-09 season and the longest non-conference streak since the 2006-07 campaign.
• The Braves last won six-straight games overall from Jan. 19 to Feb. 6, 2008 with its last six-game non-conference winning streak in 1987-88.

SERIES HISTORY
• The Braves and Aztecs have met on four previous occasions but none since the 1967-68 season.
• Bradley is 4-0 all-time against San Diego State with all four meetings in Peoria.

BRAVES VERSUS MOUNTAIN WEST
• Bradley is 11-10 all-time versus current members of the Mountain West Conference.
• However, the Braves have lost their last nine meetings with MWC teams with their win over the Aztecs in 1967 marking their last victory.

MOUNTAIN WEST-MVC CHALLENGE
• Sunday's matchup also marks the last game of the 2017 Mountain West-Missouri Valley Conference Challenge Series.
• With two games scheduled for Saturday, the Valley currently leads the series, 4-3, with all seven home teams winning so far.
• The Braves are winless in five games in the series, falling to BYU (2009), Utah (2010), Wyoming (2011), Boise State (2015) and Nevada (2016).

ABOUT THE AZTECS
• San Diego State is 6-2 to start the season, winning its most recent game against cross-town rival, San Diego, 66-57, on Thursday.
• Devin Watson leads four Aztecs in double-figure scoring with 15.4 points per game, while also posting a team-best 4.4 assists per game.
• Trey Kell is second on the team with 13.6 points but missed Thursday's game. Malik Pope is third with 11.6 points to go with a team-leading 7.0 rebounds.
• The Aztecs have scored at least 75 points in 6-of-8 game and are averaging 81.5 points per game, with a scoring defense of 65.9.

TOP-RANKED DEFENSE
• The Braves have hung their hat on a strong defense during the 2017-18 campaign.
• Bradley is allowing only 58.0 points per game, ranking fifth in the country.
• The Braves also place in the top 10 in both field goal percentage defense (sixth at 35.4%) and 3-point defense (10th at 24.9%).

NO 70 DEFENSE
• The defensive strength has been evident by the Braves not allowing teams to hit the 70-point mark this season.
• It marks the first time since the 1947-48 campaign that Bradley has gone the first eight games of the year without allowing a team to hit the threshold.
• In fact, Bradley is one of just five schools in the country (of 351 teams) that have not allowed a team to score 70 points during the 2017-18 season (Georgia Tech, San Diego, SMU and Virginia are the other four).

FIRST-HALF ADVANTAGE
• Bradley has really excelled in the first half of games this season, especially on the defensive end.
• The Braves have not allowed a team to score more than 28 in any opening 20 minutes of action as BU has had the lead in all eight games at the intermission this season.
• Overall, Bradley has outscored opponents by an average of 31.4 to 23.9 en route to its 7-1 record.
• The Braves are allowing more than 10 points fewer in the first half (23.9) compared to the second half (34.1).

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