Braves with Road Game at Northern Iowa Wednesday

Men's Basketball 2/6/2018 10:01:00 AM

Bradley (17-8 , 7-5 MVC) at Northern Iowa (11-13, 3-9 MVC)
Game Details	Wednesday, Feb. 7 • 7 p.m. • Cedar Falls, Iowa • McLeod Center
Television	ESPN3
Radio	1470 WMBD
Game Notes	Bradley \| Northern Iowa
Game Coverage	Live Stats \| Twitter: @bradleyumbb \| Instagram: @bradleyumbb

After having its four-game winning streak snapped, the Bradley men's basketball team looks to return to its winning ways with a road game at Northern Iowa. Tipoff on Wednesday is set for 7 p.m.

ABOUT THE BRAVES
• Bradley is tied for third in the Missouri Valley Conference standings with a 7-5 league record, with a 17-8 overall mark.
• The Braves had their four-game winning streak snapped in their last game, falling to Drake, 78-68.
• Sophomore Darrell Brown leads Bradley with 13.4 points and 4.6 assists per game, including four-straight games with eight assists.
• Senior Donte Thomas is second on the team with 10.6 points per game, while also leading the Braves with 7.1 boards. Nate Kennell ranks third with 9.4 points per game.
• BU is averaging 68.2 points, shooting 43.3 percent from the floor and 36.6 percent from 3-point range.
• The strength of the team is on defense where BU features the nation's 15th-ranked unit, allowing only 63.4 points per game, 39.5 percent of field goals and 32.1 percent from 3-point range.

SERIES HISTORY
• The teams have evenly split 60 all-time meetings with each school winning 30 times in the series.
• The series has largely been controlled by the home team with the schools combining to win 39-of-54 matchups as host.
• Bradley has lost its last 10 games at Northern Iowa with its last win coming in 2008, 75-73. Last season, UNI held on for a 64-61 victory at the McLeod Center, Bradley's closest game since a 52-50 setback in 2010.
• When the schools met earlier in the season in Peoria, Bradley shot 64.3 percent from 3-point range to earn a 72-53 victory, led by 24 points from Darrell Brown.

ABOUT THE PANTHERS
• Northern Iowa is tied for ninth in the Valley standings with a 3-9 conference record. Overall, the Panthers are 11-13 this season.
• Bennett Koch leads the team with 12.6 points per game, while Tywhon Pickford is second with 10.3 points to go with a team-leading 8.2 boards.
• Wednesday's matchup features two of the nation's top-15 defenses as Northern Iowa allows only 63.0 points per game.
• Offensively, the Panthers average 64.5 points.

SEASON GAINS
• The Braves are making moves to return to the top.
• With six games remaining, Bradley's 17 wins already match its highest regular-season total since it went 20-11 during the 2006-07 season (finished 22-13 after postseason).
• In fact, Bradley's 17 victories are just one shy of the last two seasons combined (5 and 13 wins).
• Bradley is on pace for its highest MVC finish in 17 years as the Braves have not placed higher than fourth since 2000-01 (t-2nd).

TOP-RANKED DEFENSE
• The key to the team's success this season has been owning one of the nation's top defenses.
• Bradley is allowing only 63.4 points per game, ranking 15th in the country.
• The Braves also place in the top 60 in field goal percentage defense (14th at 39.5%), 2-point defense (26th at 44.9%) and 3-point defense (51st at 32.1%).

WHAT CAN BROWN DO FOR YOU?
• Sophomore Darrell Brown has continued to shine as the Braves' top offensive threat, whether he is the team's go-to scorer or setting up others.
• Brown leads BU with 13.4 points and 4.6 assists per game during the 2017-18 season.
• In 24 games this year, Brown has led the team in points on 12 occasions and in assists 20 times – including eight contests of leading BU in both.

ASSISTING THE WIN
• The biggest area of growth in Darrell Brown's second season is in his passing ability.
• Bradley's leading scorer, Brown has recorded at least seven assists in seven games (zero last year) and five assists in 13 games (five last year).
• Brown has recorded eight assists in each of the last four games, the first Brave with four-straight performances since Anthony Manuel in 1988.
• Overall, Brown leads all players in the MVC in conference games only with 5.4 assists per game.
• The sophomore already has 29 more assists than last season (87--> 116), while committing 20 fewer turnovers (93--> 73).

STARTING COURSE
• Freshman Elijah Childs has made a big impact as a rookie but has picked it up even more as of late.
• Since being moved into the starting lineup on a permanent basis on Jan. 17, Childs is averaging 11.5 points, 8.3 rebounds and 1.8 blocks.
• Childs has scored in double figures in each of the last five games after six such games in the season's first 19 contests.
• Overall, the Braves are 7-2 this season when Childs is in the starting lineup (compared to 10-6 when he isn't).

40 PERCENT THRESHOLD
• The key target for the Braves this season is to shoot 40 percent from the field.
• Bradley is a perfect 7-0 this season when shooting at least 40 percent in MVC games (15-2 overall).
• On the reverse end, BU is winless in five MVC games when shooting under 40 percent (2-6 overall).
• In 12 MVC games, Bradley is shooting 47.4 percent in its seven wins (40.0% 3-pointers), while making 36.7 percent of its shots in its five losses (25.0% 3-pointers).

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