Bradley BRAD 1-1

Xavier XU 2-0

Bradley BRAD

1-1

Final

Nov. 26, 2020

Xavier XU

2-0

Score By Periods
Team	1	2	F
Bradley BRAD	20	30	50
Xavier XU	22	29	51

Box Score

Zach Dalin

Braves Fall to Xavier on Last-Second Shot

Box Score (PDF)

Game Recap: Men's Basketball | 11/26/2020 2:38:00 PM

Cincinnati, Ohio – In a back-and-forth game, the Bradley men's basketball team lost on the road to Xavier, 51-50, thanks to a last-second field by the Musketeers. Bradley is now 1-1 after two games at the Xavier Invitational, while the hosts improve to 2-0.

Senior Elijah Childs led the Braves with 17 points, seven rebounds and four steals against the Big East foe. Sophomore Ville Tahvanainen also added 11 points for BU, making 3-of-5 from 3-point range in the contest.

The schools traded runs to begin before settling in for a tight contest the remainder of the game. Xavier opened a 12-4 lead just more than six minutes in before Bradley responded with a 10-0 run for its first lead of the game, 14-12. The lead would change three additional times in the opening 20 minutes of action before the Musketeers headed into the locker room with a two-point edge, 22-20.

Xavier quickly stretched its lead to eight points early in the second half, 31-23, but the Braves were unfazed and immediately answered with a 7-0 spurt for to pull back within one, 31-30. BU then grabbed its first advantage of the period when Childs connected on a jumper for a 34-33 edge with 12:57 remaining in the game.

The teams would trade the advantage a total of 10 times in the final 13 minutes of action in a tight contest throughout. Neither team led by more than four points the rest of the game and the Braves found themselves ahead by one, 45-44, with 3:33 left in the game after Tahvanainen was fouled while shooting a jumper. Xavier, however, answered with a 3-pointer on the other end before Bradley connected on two free throws for a 47-47 deadlock with 2:34 left.

The Musketeers went back ahead, 49-47, with 1:59 remaining, taking advantage of a couple of offensive rebounds. The Bradley defense then kept the team in the game by forcing three-straight misses by Xavier to give Bradley the ball down two with under 30 seconds remaining. For the second-straight day, Terry Nolan Jr. connected on a go-ahead shot with less than 20 seconds remaining, burying a contested 3-pointer from the corner for a 50-49 lead with just 12.5 ticks remaining. On this day, however, Xavier answered with a layup with 3.8 seconds left for a one-point edge and Bradley missed the front end of a 1-and-1 with 0.4 seconds remaining as Xavier secured its second-straight victory to open the season.

Both defenses played a strong game on the day as Bradley shot 33.3 percent and held the Musketeers to 33.9 percent shooting. The Braves converted 6-of-16 from 3-point range, however, while holding the Musketeers to 5-of-20 but Xavier held a 47-40 edge on the glass.

Bradley now wraps up the Xavier Invitational on Friday afternoon, playing Oakland at 2:15 p.m. CT.

Game Notes: Bradley has allowed only 110 points through two games this season (55.0 per game) … Childs is averaging 15.6 points, 7.8 rebounds and 1.4 blocks in eight career games against schools from the top seven conferences (AAC, ACC, Big 12, Big East, Big Ten, SEC and Pac-12) … Childs now ranks 12th in school history in career rebounds with 680, passing Seymour Reed (had 677 from 1971 to 1974) … Childs also moved into a tie for fourth place in school history in career blocks with former teammate Koch Bar at 131 … The Braves have proven to be a second-half team through two games, shooting 47.3 percent from the floor and 52.9 percent from 3-point range (BU is shooting 28.4 percent and 10.0 percent, respectively, in the first 20 minutes of action) … The schools were meeting for the first time since 1958 and Bradley now leads the series, 3-2.

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