Peoria, IL. The Braves return to action after the holiday weekend with a trip to Nashville, TN. Awaiting the Braves will be the Belmont Bruins in BU's third Missouri Valley Conference game of the season.

Scouting the Bruins
As the host team in this matchup the Belmont Bruins come in with a record of 8-5 on the season and 1-1 in MVC play after dropping a game at Illinois State then bouncing back to beat Valparaiso at home. The Bruins are coached by Casey Alexander who is in his 4th season at Belmont and holds a record of 85-24 in those four season. Overall, Coach Alexander made two previous stops at Stetson and Lipscomb for eight seasons prior to joining the Bruins program. Between the lines the Bruins are led by 6' 6" guard Ben Sheppard. The Atlanta, GA native has been a force this season for Belmont averaging 18.5 PPG, 4.6 RPG, 3.8 APG, and 1.6 SPG while leading an offense that is second in the MVC in scoring at 77 PPG. The big key for Belmont will be finding away to steal baskets against the Braves. BU's scoring defense is ranked 16th in the nation at 59 PPG and BU has held six of their last seven matchups to 55 points or less, with two of them failing to reach 45.

Scouting the Braves
Bradley is back on track after winning consecutive games by double digits in Peoria against Stonehill and Akron. They will look to claim their second MVC road win of the year with the program's first ever trip to play Belmont. Duke Deen and Rienk Mast will look to continue their stellar outings with Duke Deen being named MVC Newcomer of the week after he tallied 40 points on 11-18 shooting from behind the arc in two games. While Rienk Mast set two of the valley's highest single game rebounding totals this season in back to back games with 13 against Stonehill and 15 against Akron. Mast also recorded the only back to back double-double of the week in just his 6th and 7th games back from injury. With a win tomorrow the Braves set themselves up to match their best start to MVC play in the last 15 seasons when they went 4-0 overall in 2008-09 and 3-0 on the road with wins over Wichita St, Missouri State and Indiana State. The big key for Bradley on Wednesday night will be to get off to a hot start from downtown. In the last two season Bradley's record is 18-4 when shooting better than 33% from long range compared to just 8-13 when they are equal or below 33%. 

Milestones to watch
- Ja'Shon Henry needs to average 7.9 PPG for the next 19 guaranteed games to reach 1,000 career points, he currently sits at 69th on Bradley's all-time scoring list.
- Rienk Mast has scored in double figures in every game since his return from injury and recorded back to back double-doubles. He is just the second Brave to accomplish that feat this season (Malevy Leons)
- Duke Deen is averaging 20PPG in his last two contests and is shooting 61% from downtown making 11 of his last 18 and was named MVC newcomer of the Week as a result.
- This will be Bradley's first ever encounter with Belmont, Bradley has played 5 first time teams this season and is 3-2 in those contests.

How to Watch/Listen
You can stream Bradley vs Belmont on MVC-TV as apart of Bally Sports and ESPN+. You can also listen live over the radio with 1470 WMBD. The game is scheduled for a 7 p.m. start from the Curb Event Center in Nashville, TN.