Braves Set for Road Contest at Indiana State

Men's Basketball 1/4/2019 12:27:00 PM

Bradley (8-6, 0-1 MVC) at Indiana State (8-5, 0-1 MVC)
Game Details	Saturday, Jan. 5 • 1 p.m. CT • Terre Haute, Ind. • Hulman Center
Television	ESPN3
Radio	1470 WMBD
Game Notes	Bradley \| Indiana State
Game Coverage	Live Stats \| Twitter: @bradleyumbb \| Instagram: @bradleyumbb

The Bradley men's basketball team makes its first road trip of the Valley season with a contest at Indiana State on Saturday. The schools are set to meet for a 1 p.m. CT tipoff.

ABOUT THE BRAVES
• Bradley lost its Valley opener on Wednesday to Northern Iowa and is now 8-6 during the 2018-19 campaign.
• Junior Darrell Brown leads the Braves with 14.1 points and 3.4 assists per game.
• Sophomore Elijah Childs is second on the team with 12.6 points per game, while leading Bradley with 7.8 boards per game.
• Nate Kennell (9.8), Koch Bar (9.5) and Dwayne Lautier-Ogunleye (8.9) round out the team's top five in scoring.
• Bradley is scoring 69.4 points per game this season, while owning the Valley's second-best scoring defense at 67.7.

SERIES HISTORY
• Bradley holds a 52-37 advantage against Indiana State in 89 all-time meetings.
• The Sycamores owns a 24-18 edge against the Braves in Terre Haute but last season, BU ended an eight-game road losing streak in the series with an 81-73 victory.
• Nate Kennell sunk a career-best seven 3-pointers for 25 points in the winning road effort last year.
• Indiana State did respond with a road win of its own in the regular-season finale in Peoria, 66-64.

ABOUT THE SYCAMORES
• Indiana State also lost its opener on Wednesday, dropping a 79-44 contest at Loyola.
• The loss was ISU's second-straight as it finished the non-conference season with a defeat to TCU. Overall, the Sycamores are 8-5 this season.
• Indiana State features the top two scorers in the Valley this season as Jordan Barnes and Tyreke Keye lead the way with 19.1 and 17.2 points, respectively.
• Barnes also leads ISU with 3.8 assists per game, while Christian Williams has a team-best 6.2 rebounds per game.

ROUNDING INTO FORM
• Nate Kennell has found his 3-point shot during his junior campaign.
• Kennell has made 44.7 percent of his shots from beyond the arc in the last seven contests (17-of-38).
• In the season's first seven games, Kennell made only 28.6 percent of his shots from long range.
• The 3-point rhythm is key for the Braves as last season, Kennell made a career-best seven triples (just one shy of the school record) in nine attempts to lead BU to a road win at Indiana State.
• In four career games versus the Sycamores, Kennell has made 63.2 percent (12-of-19) of his 3-point attempts.
• Kennell, who connected on 69 3-pointers last season (the most by a Brave since 2010-11), is now third on the team with 9.8 points per game.

2-POINT DEFENSE
• The strength of the Valley's second-ranked scoring defense is Bradley's 2-point defense this season.
• The Braves lead the MVC and rank 42nd nationally by allowing opponents to make only 45.5 percent of their shots inside the arc (national average is 50.4 and SIU ranks second in Valley at 47.3).
• Bradley is on pace for its best 2-point defense since the 2005-06 Sweet 16 team owned a mark of 44.9 percent.

3-POINT DEFENSE
• With an elite 2-point defense, it makes BU's 3-point defense that much more important.
• In its eight wins, Bradley is allowing teams to shoot only 31.2 percent from beyond the arc.
• However, in their six defeats, BU opponents are making 40.1 percent of their 3-pointers – nearly nine percent better.
• Overall, the Braves are allowing teams to shoot 35.2 percent from 3-point range this season – ranking ninth in the Valley.

DEFENSIVE FORCE
• Sophomore Elijah Childs is enjoying a breakout season and his defense is a big reason why.
• Childs leads the Braves in both steals (19) and blocks (18) in 2018-19, ranking sixth in the MVC in steals per game and seventh in blocks.
• The sophomore is one of two players in the Valley to rank in the top 10 of both categories.
• No Brave has led the team in both blocks and steals since Anthony Parker in 1995-96, while the last MVC player to rank in the top 10 of both was Northern Iowa's Jeremy Morgan in 2016-17.

CHARITY STRIPE
• One area where the Braves have really excelled so far in 2018-19 is getting to the free throw line.
• BU ranks second in the MVC and 57th nationally with 313 free throw attempts this season.
• In fact, Bradley ranks 30th in the country with a free-throw rate of 43.1 percent (FTA/FGA), while placing 40th by scoring 22.6 percent of its points from the line.
• Bradley is the only team in the Valley with three players that have made at least 35 free throws as Koch Bar (47-61), Darrell Brown (45-65) and Dwayne Lautier-Ogunleye (43-61) all easily eclipse the mark.

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