Braves Continue Road Trip at Valpo

Men's Basketball 1/7/2019 11:30:00 AM

Bradley (8-7, 0-2 MVC) at Valparaiso (9-6, 2-0 MVC)
Game Details	Tuesday, Jan. 8 • 7 p.m. • Valparaiso, Ind. • Athletics-Recreation Center
Television	ESPN+
Radio	1470 WMBD
Game Notes	Bradley \| Valparaiso
Game Coverage	Live Stats \| Twitter: @bradleyumbb \| Instagram: @bradleyumbb

Bradley men's basketball continues its road trip through Indiana with a Missouri Valley Conference game at Valparaiso on Tuesday. The schools are set to meet at 7 p.m. on ESPN+.

ABOUT THE BRAVES
• Bradley has lost its first two conference games of the season and is 8-7 on the year following a 65-60 set back at Indiana State on Saturday.
• Junior Darrell Brown scored a season-best 32 points against the Sycamores. He leads the Braves with 15.3 points and 3.3 assists per game.
• Sophomore Elijah Childs is second on the team with 12.1 points per game, while leading Bradley with 7.7 boards per game.
• Nate Kennell (9.5), Koch Bar (9.1) and Dwayne Lautier-Ogunleye (8.8) round out the team's top five in scoring.
• Bradley is scoring 68.8 points per game in 2018-19, while owning the Valley's second-best scoring defense at 67.5.

SERIES HISTORY
• The newest member of the Valley, Valparaiso is playing the Braves for just the sixth time.
• The home team has won all five previous games in the series after splitting a pair of games last season as Valley foes.
• Donte Thomas scored 19 points to lead Bradley to an 80-71 home victory in January last year before the Crusaders finished on a 21-0 run to rally for a 77-64 home win in February.
• The schools had not met since 1983 prior to last year's matchups.

ABOUT THE CRUSADERS
• Valparaiso has won its first two Valley games of the season against Illinois State and Missouri State and is 9-6 overall.
• Valpo is 5-2 at home in 2018-19.
• Five Crusaders average in double figures with Ryan Fazekas leading the team with 13.3 points.
• Derrik Smits owns a Valpo-best 6.7 rebounds per game, while Deion Lavender has a team-leading 5.2 assists per game.
• The Crusaders average 73.7 points per game, while allowing 68.7.

BROWN SHOWS SCORING POTENTIAL
• When junior guard Darrell Brown gets hot, he has the potential to put up a big number.
• Brown scored a season-best 32 points on Saturday at Indiana State, scoring 25 of his points in the second half versus the Sycamores.
• Brown's 32 points are the most in the Valley this season and just two off his career-best of 34, set against Hofstra in 2016.
• The junior point guard, who leads the Braves with 15.3 points per game, recorded his 14th double-digit scoring game of the season and has led BU in points on six occasions in 2018-19.
• Brown is the first Brave to score more than half of Bradley's points since Phillip Gilbert scored 32 in a 64-60 loss to Wichita State on Jan. 25, 2003.

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 62nd nationally with 336 free throw attempts this season.
• In fact, Bradley ranks 30th in the country with a free-throw rate of 42.7 percent (FTA/FGA), while placing 31st by scoring 23.0 percent of its points from the line.
• Bradley is the only team in the Valley with three players that have made more than 35 free throws as Darrell Brown (58-81), Koch Bar (47-61) and Dwayne Lautier-Ogunleye (45-65) all easily eclipse the mark.

AVOIDING THE OPPOSITE LINE
• While the Braves have done a great job of reaching the free-throw line, they have allowed their opponent to get to the line just as much.
• Bradley has attempted 336 free throws in 2018-19, while its opponent has 346 attempts.
• In fact, foes are scoring 24.9 percent of its points from the free-throw line – 14th-most nationally.
• Bradley is 23-9 in the last two seasons when committing 20 or fewer fouls (6-2 this season). On the opposite end, BU is just 5-11 with 21 or more fouls in a game (2-5 this season).
• On Saturday, Indiana State made 30-of-47 free throw attempts – tied for the third-most attempts by a BU opponent in school history.

DEFENSE KEYS BU VICTORIES
• The Braves have learned they will only go as far as their defense takes them.
• In its eight wins, Bradley is allowing only 61.2 points per game. However, in its six losses, BU is allowing 76.3 points per game – a difference of 13.5 points per game.

65 POINTS
• The most important number for the Braves is to keep its opponent under 65 points in a game.
• During the last two seasons, Bradley is nearly unbeatable when allowing under 65 points, posting a 20-1 record (6-0 this season).
• However, when their opponent scored 65 or more points in a game, the Braves record dips to 8-19 (2-7 in 2018-19).
• The Braves have allowed exactly 65 points in each of its first two Valley games, resulting in losses.

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