Braves Travel to Face Little Rock

Men's Basketball 12/3/2018 10:30:00 AM

Bradley (6-3) at Little Rock (4-4)
Game Details	Tuesday, Dec. 4 • 6:30 p.m. • Little Rock, Ark.
Television	LRTrojans.com
Radio	1470 WMBD
Game Notes	Bradley \| Little Rock
Game Coverage	Live Stats \| Twitter: @bradleyumbb \| Instagram: @bradleyumbb

The Bradley basketball team is back in action on Tuesday, hitting the road and playing at Little Rock. The Braves are Trojans are set to battle with a 6:30 p.m. tipoff in Arkansas.

ABOUT THE BRAVES
• Bradley has lost its last two games to fall to 6-3 on the year.
• Junior Darrell Brown is coming off a season-best 20-point performance against New Mexico and is averaging a team-best 15.1 points per game to go with a BU-leading 3.8 assists.
• Sophomore Elijah Childs is second on the team with 13.7 points to go with a Bradley-best 8.6 rebounds per game.
• Five Braves overall average at least nine points with Nate Kennell (9.9), Koch Bar (9.6) and Dwayne Lautier-Ogunleye (9.6) rounding out the top five.
• Bradley is scoring 72.7 points per game, while allowing 67.7 points on the defensive end.

SERIES HISTORY
• The Braves and Trojans are meeting for the third time on the basketball court, splitting the first two games between the schools.
• Little Rock won the first matchup, 64-54, at the 2014 South Point Holiday Classic in Las Vegas.
• Bradley, however, evened the series last season with a dominant 86-46 home win.
• Five Braves scored in double figures and BU shot 60.8 percent from the field as Bradley posted its largest win against a Division I school in 18 seasons (Feb. 5, 2000).
• Tuesday's game will be the first ever game for the Braves in the state of Arkansas.

BRAVES VERSUS SUN BELT
• Bradley is 14-8 all-time against current members of the Sun Belt Conference.
• Last season, the Braves swept a pair of games against Sun Belt foes, defeating both Little Rock and Georgia Southern (who Bradley also plays on Dec. 18 of this season).

ABOUT THE TROJANS
• Little Rock is 4-4 through eight games in 2018-19, winning its most recent game on Saturday against Sam Houston State, 79-52.
• Three of the Trojans' four wins have come at home where they are 3-1 on the season.
• Rayjon Tucker leads the Trojans with 20.7 points and 6.6 rebounds – making 52.7 percent of his field goals.
• Markquis Nowell is second on the team with 12.0 points and first with 4.3 assists per game but has missed the last two contests.
• Little Rock is averaging 78.5 points per game this season, while allowing 76.9.

MILESTONE WATCH
• Darrell Brown is nearing the 1,000-point mark.
• Brown currently has 984 career points and the junior is just 16 points shy of becoming the 47th Brave in school history to reach 1,000.

CONSISTENT BROWN
• The key for Darrell Brown during his career as he approaches 1,000 points is his consistency.
• Brown is first on the team with 15.1 points and 3.8 assists in 2018-19.
• The junior is the first Brave with at least 10 points in the season's first nine games since Daniel Ruffin in 2007-08. The last Brave to tally double-digits in the first 10 games was Jeremy Crouch in 2006-07 (who did so in the season's first 14 games).
• Brown has scored at least 10 points in 59-of-74 career games and in 36-of-42 games since the beginning of the 2017-18 campaign.
• More than just a scorer, Brown has also led BU in assists 48 times in his career (six times this season).

PICK YOUR POISON
• When Darrell Brown scored 20 points Saturday, he became the fourth Brave to reach the mark this season, joining Koch Bar, Elijah Childs and Dwayne Lautier-Ogunleye.
• Despite being just nine games into the season, Bradley's four 20-point scorers match its most since having six players reach the mark in 2006-07.
• Overall, seven current Braves have scored at least 20 points in a game as Nate Kennell, Antoine Pittman and Luuk van Bree have also reached the mark in previous seasons.
• Five different Braves have led the team in scoring this season and no player more than three times.

DEFENSE KEYS BU VICTORIES
• Through nine games, the Braves have learned they will only go as far as their defense takes them.
• In its six wins, Bradley is allowing only 61.3 points per game and has surrendered more than 65 points only once.
• However, in its three losses, BU is allowing 80.3 points per game and teams are shooting more than nine percent better from the field.
• Offensively, the Braves are averaging the same 72.7 points in wins and in losses.

PLAYING AT A WINNING PACE
• Another key for Bradley this season is playing at its own pace.
• In its five wins against Division I schools, the Braves have averaged 66.2 possessions per game (18.1 seconds per possession).
• However, in its losses, BU has played a much quicker pace – playing at least 70 possessions in all three games and averaging 72.3 per game (16.6 seconds per possession).

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