Bradley Meets Loyola in Arch Madness Quarterfinals

Men's Basketball 3/2/2022 11:00:00 AM

Bradley (17-13, 11-7 MVC) vs. Loyola (22-7, 13-5 MVC)
Game Details	Friday, March 4 • 2:30 p.m. • St. Louis, Mo. • Enterprise Center
Television	Bally Sports Midwest / Indiana / Kansas City \| NBC Sports Chicago
Webcast	Bally Sports (IL, IA, IN, KS, MO, NE) \| ESPN+ (Other States)
Radio	1470 & 100.3 WMBD
Game Notes	Bradley \| Loyola
Game Coverage	Live Stats \| Twitter: @bradleyumbb \| Instagram: @bradleyumbb
Tickets	Ticketmaster

Bradley opens Arch Madness on Friday, squaring off with Loyola in the quarterfinals of the 2022 State Farm Missouri Valley Conference Tournament. Tipoff in St. Louis is set for 2:30 p.m.

ABOUT THE BRAVES
• Bradley finished the regular season with an 11-7 Missouri Valley Conference record to place fifth in the league standings.
• Overall, the Braves are 17-13 during the campaign, winning nine of their final 12 games.
• Junior Terry Roberts leads BU with 14.4 points, 4.2 assists and 1.5 steals per game.
• Sophomore Rienk Mast is second on BU with 11.6 points, while leading the MVC with 8.3 rebounds.
• Junior Malevy Leons also scores in double figures with 10.1 points to go with 5.9 rebounds.
• Bradley averages 71.2 points per game, while allowing 65.2 defensively.

ABOUT THE RAMBLERS
• Loyola earned the league's four seed after posting a 22-7 overall record with a 13-5 Valley mark.
• Lucas Williamson leads the Ramblers with 14.1 points and 4.8 rebounds per game.
• Braden Norris is second on Loyola with 10.1 points to go with a team-leading 4.3 assists.
• The Ramblers average 74.7 points per game, while allowing 62.9 defensively.

SEASON SERIES VERSUS LOYOLA
• In the first meeting between the two schools, Loyola rallied for a 78-71 overtime win on Jan. 8.
• Bradley then returned the favor with a 68-61 victory at Carver Arena on Feb. 9.
• Rienk Mast led the Braves during the season series, averaging a double-double with 13.0 points and 10.5 rebounds.
• Malevy Leons also scored in double figures with 11.0 points and 5.5 boards, while Terry Roberts led BU with 4.0 assists.

CHAMPIONS COLLIDE
• Friday's contest between the Bradley and Loyola features the last four Arch Madness champions squaring off against each other.
• The Braves won back-to-back titles in 2019 and 2020, sandwiched around Loyola's triumphs in 2018 and last season in 2021.
• The teams each defeated the other once during their title runs with Loyola winning a semifinal in 2018 before Bradley won the semifinal rematch in 2019 to end Loyola's repeat chances.

ARCH MADNESS EXPERIENCE
• While the schools have split the MVC Tournament crowns in the past four years, Loyola much closer resembles its championship teams.
• BU's roster features just three players that appeared in either championship game for a total of 60 minutes (33 by the injured Ja'Shon Henry).
• The Ramblers, meanwhile, return seven that have played in a title game with a combined 183 minutes of action.

MVC TOURNAMENT MEETINGS
• Bradley and Loyola are meeting for the fifth time since 2014 in the MVC Tournament.
• The Ramblers won the first three meetings in postseason play before BU claimed the 2019 semifinal, 53-51. Ja'Shon Henry is the only current Brave that appeared in that win – totaling five points and seven rebounds in 19 minutes.

MVC TOURNAMENT HISTORY
• Bradley is making its 43rd appearance in the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament.
• BU has won the tournament title four times – 1980, 1988, 2019 and 2020.
• Overall, the Braves own a 38-38 (50.0) all-time record in the MVC Tournament, including a 26-28 (48.1) mark at Arch Madness in St. Louis.
• Bradley is 21-13 all-time in the quarterfinals, including an 11-6 record in the four vs. five game.

TOP NEWCOMER AND ALL-MVC
• Junior Terry Roberts collected Missouri Valley Conference Newcomer of the Year honors, as well as earning first-team All-Valley accolades.
• The junior is the seventh Brave to win the league's top Newcomer awards – joining Seymour Reed (1972), Jim Caruthers (1973), Mitchell Anderson (1979), Hersey Hawkins (1985), Dion Thurman (1989) and Marcellus Sommerville (2004).
• Roberts is also the first Brave to earn first-team all-league honors since Andrew Warren in 2011, while becoming the fourth in school history to earn it in his first year at BU – joining Chet Walker (1960), Curtis Stuckey (1990) and Sommerville (2004).
• Roberts leads Bradley with 14.4 points, 4.2 assists and 1.5 steals per game.

MAST NAMED ALL-MVC THIRD TEAM
• Sophomore Rienk Mast joined Terry Roberts on the All-Valley team, earning third-team honors.
• Mast was one of two underclassmen to be named all-conference, joining Drake's Tucker DeVries.
• It marks the fourth time in the last five years that Bradley has featured at least two all-conference performers.
• Mast is first in the Valley with 8.3 rebounds per game, while ranking second on the team with 11.6 points (first in MVC games at 13.9).

HICKMAN NAMED ALL-FRESHMAN
• Connor Hickman rounded out BU's postseason honorees, named to the MVC All-Freshman Team.
• Hickman is the seventh Brave in seven seasons under Wardle to earn the honor – the most in the league during that span.
• The rookie is averaging 6.7 points per game this season, while adding 33 assists.

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