Braves Play at Northern Iowa in Midweek Matchup

Bradley University Marketing

Men's Basketball 2/14/2017 11:37:00 AM

Bradley (9-18, 4-10 MVC) at Northern Iowa (13-12, 8-6 MVC)
Game Details	Wednesday, Feb. 15 • 7 p.m. • Cedar Falls, Iowa • McLeod Center
Television	Comcast SportsNet Chicago
Webcast	ESPN3
Radio	1470 WMBD
Game Notes	Bradley \| Northern Iowa
Game Coverage	Live Stats \| Twitter: @bradleyumbb \| Instagram: @bradleyumbb

Bradley hits the road to face Northern Iowa on Wednesday night. The Braves and Panthers will tip off at 7 p.m. with the game shown on ESPN3 and Comcast SportsNet Chicago.

ABOUT THE BRAVES
• Bradley has dropped two-straight decisions to fall into a tie for eighth place in the MVC standings with a 4-10 mark.
• Overall, the Braves are 9-18 this season.
• Freshman Darrell Brown leads Bradley with 12.2 points per game and 73 assists, while junior JoJo McGlaston is second on the team with 8.4 points per game.
• Junior Donte Thomas leads the Braves with 6.3 rebounds per game, including a mark of 7.5 in conference play.
• As a team, Bradley is making 41.6 percent of its field goals with a 35.8 percent 3-point mark.

SERIES HISTORY
• In 58 all-time meetings between the Braves and Panthers, the series is evenly split at 29 games apiece.
• The Braves ended a five-game losing streak in the series earlier in the season when Bradley posted a 72-61 victory at Carver Arena.
• Luuk van Bree scored a career-best 20 points in the win and Donte Thomas added a double-double with 12 points and 13 rebounds for Bradley.
• Despite the BU victory earlier in the year, UNI has had the advantage as of late, winning 10 of the last 12 meetings between the two schools.
• The Panthers are also 18-8 all-time against the Braves in Cedar Falls and have won the last nine meetings with BU at the McLeod Center. Overall, Bradley is just 1-10 all-time in the building with their only win coming on Jan. 12, 2008 (75-73).

ABOUT THE PANTHERS
• Northern Iowa is in third place in the Missouri Valley standings with an 8-6 conference mark. Overall the Panthers are 13-12 this season.
• The Panthers were 0-5 in MVC play after losing to Bradley on Jan. 11 but have responded by going 8-1 since to move into third in the standings.
• Preseason MVC Player of the Year Jeremy Morgan leads the Panthers in scoring (15.4 per game), rebounding (6.1 per game), assists (67), steals (48) and blocks (30).
• Bennett Koch is second on the team with 10.5 points per game.

ON THIS DATE
Record on Feb. 15: 17-14
Feb. 15 Highlight: Hersey Hawkins scored on a driving layup with 10 seconds remaining as Bradley scored the last eight points of the game to earn a 61-60 victory at Southern Illinois on Feb. 15, 1986. The rally kept the Braves perfect in Missouri Valley play at 13-0 and clinched at least a share of the regular-season title for BU before earning it outright in its next game.

BU INCREASING THE PRESSURE
• Bradley has increased the defensive pressure as of late and forced its opponent into more turnovers.
• During the last five games, the Braves have forced 16.8 turnovers per game – including a mark of 19.5 the last two contests (allowing only 60.0 points per game).
• Last Wednesday, the Braves forced Indiana State into 22 turnovers – the most by an MVC opponent since Illinois State had 23 on Jan. 29, 2013.
• In the season's first 22 games, Bradley ranked last in the MVC by forcing 12.4 turnovers per game (and 261st nationally) but now place eighth in the conference and 190th in the country at 13.2.

LOOKING LIKE THE VETERANS
• The BU rookie class has been the driving force behind the Braves' offense in Missouri Valley play.
• Of the team's 61.6 points in MVC games, the Braves' four freshmen are averaging 30.6 points, accounting for 49.7 percent of the team's scoring.
• In the last three games, the Braves started all four rookies for the first three times this year.
• Freshman Darrell Brown leads all BU players with 12.8 points per game in conference games.
• For comparison's sake, BU's six sophomores have totaled 14.2 points per game and the three juniors are averaging 16.8 points.

TOP MVC ROOKIES
• Overall, the Braves boast some of the top individual rookies in the Missouri Valley Conference this year.
• Darrell Brown's 12.7 points per game are the most by an MVC freshman and 1.5 points more than second-place Landry Shamet of Wichita State.
• Classmate Koch Bar, meanwhile, is the league leader among rookies in both rebounds (5.5 per game) and blocks (1.3 per game).
• Overall, Bradley has four of the top eight scoring freshmen in the conference – Brown (1st), Bar (5th), Kennell (6th) and Hodgson (8th).
• The four BU rookies are averaging 28.1 points, 11.0 rebounds, 5.9 assists, 2.1 steals and 1.4 blocks.

TOP ROOKIE CLASSES
• Not only has the Bradley freshman class led the Braves this season, but the team's rookies are the top in Missouri Valley.
• In 14 conference games, the Braves are posting 30.6 points per game – more than 12 points more than the next highest MVC freshman class.

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