Braves Host Valparaiso on Senior Night

Men's Basketball 2/26/2019 12:39:00 PM

Bradley (16-13, 8-8 MVC) vs. Valparaiso (14-15, 7-8 MVC)
Game Details	Wednesday, Feb. 27 • 7 p.m. • Peoria, Ill. • Carver Arena
Television	ESPN+
Radio	1470 WMBD
Game Notes	Bradley \| Valparaiso
Game Coverage	Live Stats \| Twitter: @bradleyumbb \| Instagram: @bradleyumbb
Tickets	Ticketmaster \| (309) 677-2625

The Bradley men's basketball team plays its final home game of the 2018-19 season on Wednesday, hosting Valparaiso. BU can clinch a first-round bye with a win and some help with tip set for 7 p.m. at Carver Arena.

PROMOTIONS
• Prior to Wednesday's game, the Braves will honor its graduating players during a Senior Night ceremony.
• The Bradley Braves Club Raffle, presented by Busey Bank, will draw its winners at halftime.
• In Kaboom!'s Korner is inflatables from Fun on the Run, including a Bounce House.

SENIOR NIGHT
• Prior to Wednesday's game, the Braves will honor their five graduating student-athletes.
• The Class of 2019 – Peter Hanley, Dwayne Lautier-Ogunleye, Luqman Lundy, Antoine Pittman and Luuk van Bree have combined to play in 404 career games with 2,353 points, 1,185 rebounds and 499 assists.

ABOUT THE BRAVES
• Bradley returned to its winning ways on Saturday, posting a 63-61 victory versus Evansville after having its prior four-game winning streak snapped last Tuesday.
• The Braves have now won eight of their last 11 games to improve to 16-13 overall and 8-8 in Valley action.
• Junior Darrell Brown leads the Braves with 15.1 points and 3.0 assists per game.
• Sophomore Elijah Childs – the reigning Valley Player of the Week – is second on the team with 12.2 points to go with a BU-best 8.1 rebounds.
• Junior Nate Kennell (9.1) and senior Dwayne Lautier-Ogunleye (8.7) rank third and fourth on the team in scoring.
• The Braves are averaging 67.5 points per game, while ranking second in the Valley with a scoring defense of 66.3.

ARCH MADNESS SEEDING
• Bradley is currently in a three-way tie for fifth in the Missouri Valley Conference standings at 8-8.
• If the season ended today, BU would finish fifth (first of three tied teams) due to a mini-conference tiebreaker and play fourth-seeded Northern Iowa.
• The Braves can clinch a first-round bye on Wednesday with a win against Valparaiso and a loss by either Illinois State or Southern Illinois.

SERIES HISTORY
• The newest member of the Valley, Valparaiso is playing the Braves for just the seventh time.
• The home team has won all six previous games in the series, winning three times on its own court.
• The schools split a pair of matchups last season before Valparaiso won at home earlier this year, 61-50. The Crusaders used a first-half 18-2 run to gain control before holding off a late Bradley rally in the winning effort.
• The schools had not met since 1983 prior to last year's matchups.

ABOUT THE CRUSADERS
• Valparaiso enters Wednesday's game with a 7-9 Valley record – eighth in the standings but just one game back of Bradley in fifth.
• The Crusaders are 14-15 overall in 2018-19.
• Derrik Smits leads Valpo with 12.4 points and 5.9 rebounds per game – shooting 59.7 percent.
• Ryan Fazekas (11.8) and Javon Freeman (11.0) also average in double figures for the Crusaders.
• Valparaiso averages 67.9 points per game, while allowing 66.7.

CHILDS MVC PLAYER OF THE WEEK
• Sophomore Elijah Childs was named the Missouri Valley Conference Player of the Week on Monday.
• The forward tallied 18.5 points and 11.0 boards, while shooting 57.1 percent in games against Drake and Evansville last week.
• The weekly honor is the second this season for Childs – the first Brave since 2010-11 to be named Player of the Week twice and the first underclassmen in the conference since 2013-14.
• Overall, Childs is averaging 12.2 points and 8.1 rebounds this season.

CHILDS FINDING HIS RHYTHM
• Elijah Childs' production isn't limited to just last week as the sophomore has elevated his game the last half of the Valley season
• In the last eight games, Childs is averaging 13.9 points, 8.9 rebounds and 1.3 blocks – shooting 51.6 percent from the field.
• It has been a nice rebound for Childs as he averaged just 9.8 points and 7.1 boards, while shooting 38.8 percent in the first eight games of Valley play.
• Overall, the sophomore ranks second on BU with 12.2 points to go with a team-best 8.1 rebounds.

CLEANING THE GLASS
• One of the Braves' key focuses on Wednesday should be the battle on the boards.
• The team that has won the rebounding battle in Bradley games has won 11 of the last 12 contests.
• Overall, the Braves are 7-2 in Valley games when winning the glass but just 1-6 when losing the battle on the boards.

NEW LOOK BRAVES
• Bradley has turned around its season after a slow start in Missouri Valley play.
• After a winless run its first five games, Bradley has gone 8-3 in its last 11 games – tied with Drake and Missouri State for the best record in the league.
• BU has now gone from two games behind ninth in the Valley standings to tied for fifth.
• Of the previous seven times in school history that Bradley started 0-4 or worse, only once has BU responded with more than four MVC wins or a higher finish than eighth (finished 9-9 and tied for fifth in 2007-08).

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