Normal, IL. The Bradley Braves 18-8 (11-4) swept the I-74 Rivalry on Wednesday night after defeating the Illinois State Redbirds 10-16 (5-10) to a score 79-61.
Game Recap
Two weeks after Bradley and ISU played an overtime affair in Peoria, the two teams would meet again for the regular season finale of the I-74 Rivalry. Bradley would start the game off with a torrid pace. BU scored the game's first nine points and took and 9-0 advantage into the game's first media timeout. The Bradley defense has been dialed in as of late and it showed again against the Redbirds as ISU didn't record a point for the first six minutes and didn't record a FG from the floor until the 10:35 mark of the first half. Bradley would go on to extend their lead up to 20 points in the first half and carried a 41-21 lead into the locker room. As the second half started Bradley would continue to apply pressure from the 3-point line as
Zek Montgomery,
Duke Deen and
Ville Tahvanainen connected on multiple 3-pointers to push the BU lead to a game high 25 points. With just a few minutes remaining in the game ISU would respond with a 10-2 scoring run but ultimately couldn't find a way to slow down Bradley on the offensive end. The Braves would see the game out with an acrobatic dunk from
Darius Hannah, who knocked the ball free and found himself all alone on the fast break and preceded to throw down a windmill dunk to seal the game.
"It was a total team effort win, I thought Rienk and Malevy did their thing and I thought our bench was big time with 27 points.. Ville, Ja'Shon, and Darius gave us great minutes tonight." -
Brian WardleÂ
The duo of
Rienk Mast and
Malevy Leons once again showed out for the Braves as the two Dutchmen combined for 37 points, 14 rebounds, 6 assists, 2 blocks and 2 steals. The Bradley bench also stepped up against ISU with 27 points (13 points from
Ville Tahvanainen and 8 points from
Ja'Shon Henry).
The story of the night was how well Bradley controlled the glass, BU in the first meeting this season lost the battle on the glass by 19 but tonight was able to hold down the paint. The Braves record 41 team rebounds (13 were offensive rebounds) and as a result out rebounded ISU by +15. They also flexed their muscles when scoring inside with Leons converting on four traditional 3-point plays, BU ended the night by out scoring ISU 46-22 in the paint.
"We do boxout and rebounding drills everyday, coach was going to make sure we were prepared for another battle down low and I think we did a good job of that tonight" -
Rienk Mast
This win marks the first time that BU has swept the Redbirds since the 2019-20 season which included Bradley's last MVC tournament crown. Bradley has now won six road games this season and maintains pace to form a three team tie on top of the Missouri Valley Conference standings with Drake and Southern Illinois following Belmont's loss to Missouri State.
"This is a rivalry game it will always be competitive but we always take it one game at a time. We know that we have Murray State this weekend and it is going to be another big game for us" -
Malevy Leons
Looking Ahead
Bradley will be back in action on Saturday at 1 p.m. when they host the Murray State Racers. Bradley dropped the first meeting between the two programs in Murray, KY back in January. BU has now won five in a row and four straight on the road in MVC play. You can get your set for Bradley vs Murray State
here.
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