Braves Return Home to Host Maine

Men's Basketball 11/26/2021 1:00:00 PM

Bradley (1-5) vs. Maine (2-3)
Game Details	Saturday, Nov. 27 • 2 p.m. • Peoria, Ill. • Carver Arena
Television	ESPN3
Radio	1470 & 100.3 WMBD
Game Notes	Bradley \| Maine
Game Coverage	Live Stats \| Twitter: @bradleyumbb \| Instagram: @bradleyumbb
Tickets	Ticketmaster \| (309) 677-2625

The Bradley basketball team returns to Carver Arena on Saturday, squaring off against Maine. The Braves are Black Bears are set for an afternoon matinee with a 2 p.m. tipoff on ESPN3.

ABOUT THE BRAVES
• Bradley is 1-5 during its first six games of the year after going 0-3 last weekend at the Paradise Jam.
• Junior Terry Roberts leads the Braves with 15.0 points and 4.0 assists per game.
• Sophomore Rienk Mast leads Bradley with 8.2 rebounds per game.
• Senior Ja'Shon Henry is second on the team with 10.6 points and 5.8 boards, while Malevy Leons is third with 9.5 points and 5.2 rebounds.
• Bradley is averaging 68.8 points through six contests, while allowing 72.0.

SERIES HISTORY
• Bradley and Maine have met twice previously with both schools claiming victory at home.
• The schools last met exactly 28 years ago to the day as Bradley claimed an 11-point victory over the Black Bears, 71-60, at Carver Arena.
• Maine won the first meeting, 56-54, in 1992.

BRAVES VERSUS AMERICA EAST
• Bradley is 4-3 in seven all-time meetings against America East schools.
• The Braves lost their most recent meeting with a conference foe – falling to Vermont in the 2017 Bahamas Showcase, 65-64.
• Overall, it is only BU's second meeting with an America East school in the last 25 seasons as its previous game versus the league was a 66-53 win against Drexel during the 1997 NIT.

ABOUT THE BLACK BEARS
• Maine enters Saturday with a record of 2-3 and both wins coming against non-Division I schools.
• The Black Bears lost their most-recent game to Central Connecticut State, 64-56, on Tuesday.
• Stephane Ingo leads the team with 10.3 points and 7.7 rebounds per game.
• Vukasin Masic ranks second on Maine with 9.0 points to go with a team-leading 2.6 assists.
• The Black Bears average 59.0 points per game, while allowing 66.2.

STRONG START FOR ROBERTS
• Junior college transfer Terry Roberts has had a strong start to his Division I career.
• Through six games, Roberts leads Bradley with 15.0 points and 4.0 assists per game.
• Roberts' 90 total points are the most by a Brave in the first six games of the season since Darrell Brown scored 93 to start the 2016-17 season.
• Roberts wasted no time making an impact as his 15 points in his debut were the most by a Brave in their debut since 2015.

NEW FACES LEAD THE WAY
• Bradley has a number of new faces in 2021-22.
• BU's newcomers are currently accounting for 53.8 percent of points, 40.4 percent of rebounds, 71.3 percent of assists, 30.3 percent of blocks and 51.2 percent of steals.
• A BU newcomer has led the team in scoring in five of six games so far this season.
• Overall, Bradley ranks eighth of 10 schools in the Valley in experience and 228th nationally – four MVC programs are in the top 75 in the country.

HICKMAN RAISES HIS GAME
• One player that broke out at the Paradise Jam is freshman Connor Hickman.
• Hickman scored 25 points in his last two games – shooting 57 percent from the field and 50 percent from 3-point range.
• In the first four games of his career, the rookie averaged 3.5 points – shooting both 20 percent from the field and 3-point range.
• Hickman, who became the first BU freshman to start a season opener since Koch Bar and Darrell Brown opened the 2016-17 campaign, is now tallying 6.5 points per game so far this season.

INSIDE SCORING
• One area where Bradley has thrived early during the 2021-22 season is inside scoring.
• BU has controlled the paint so far – outscoring each of its six opponents by an average of 11 points per game and outshooting their foe by nearly 10 percent inside the arc.

DOUBLING UP
• Bradley has been a constant threat for double-doubles this season.
• Rienk Mast has collected three this year, while Ja'Shon Henry has two. The duo entered the year with four career double-doubles (two each).
• In fact, BU is one of just seven schools nationally to have two players with multiple double-doubles.

FREE-THROW LINE
• BU needs to turn around the free-throw line as it looks to recover from its 1-5 start.
• The Braves commit 20.0 fouls per game – 45th most nationally and the highest in the MVC.
• Opponents have taken advantage by shooting 82.1 percent (8th highest in Division I games), accounting for 25 percent of their points (14th most).
• Foes have attempted 41 more free throws (6.8 per game) and made 53 more (8.8 per game).

Print Friendly Version