• Welcome to BradleyFans.com! Visitors are welcome, but we encourage you to sign up and register as a member. It's free and takes only a few seconds. Just click on the link to Register at the top right of the page, and follow instructions. If you have any problems or questions, click on the link at the bottom right of the page to Contact Us.

Final score: Bradley 75 Indiana State 68

Bradley scores the last 15 points to go from down 60 - 68 to a 75 - 68 win

SIDEARMLiveStats

Real time live stats for your favorite team powered by SIDEARM Sports. One location for your team's Stat summaries, Individual stats, Team stats, Team leaders, Play by plays, Split Box scores and more.
bradleybraves.com bradleybraves.com
 
AJ Smith with a key steal in the final few seconds, Jaquan with 3 steals, Jonovic with 3 steals and
van der Knaap with 3 steals
 
After struggling all game to keep up with Indiana State, the Braves were down by their biggest deficit of 8 points at 60-68 with under 5 minutes left in the game. Then in the final 4:56 of the game, Bradley scored the last 15 points of the game to win 75-68.
Box score- https://bradleybraves.com/sports/mens-basketball/stats/2025-26/indiana-state/boxscore/22695
Attendance- 5,327

Indiana State shot 51.9% for the game (27-52), but they were just 31.8% from three (7-22).
Bradley shot 34.9% overall (22-63) and 22.7% from three (5-22).
Indiana State outrebounded Bradley 31-25.
But the big factor was turnovers and Points off Turnovers- Bradley had only 3 turnovers for the game, and none of them were by the guards. Indiana State had 19 turnovers, and Bradley had 14 steals. Bradley outscored Indiana State in Points off Turnovers 22-2
Jaquan Johnson had 18 points to lead Bradley.
Bradley improves to 14-7, and 7-3 in the MVC. Indiana State drops to 9-11. and 2-7 in the MVC.
MVC standings- https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/standings/_/group/18
 
molar50 said:
This team never gives up.
Click to expand...
It appears they play a completely different style in late game situations when they are down.
We need to play that way all game.
They play faster, with more intensity, and most notable, they drive to the basket and go up strong and make their layups or get FTs, instead of stopping short and shooting soft layups or fall-away shots that get blocked or hit the front of the rim.
Bradley shot 24 free throws in the 2nd half compared to just 7 in the 1st half, despite being behind nearly all the way. That comes from playing more aggressively.
I've noticed the MVC refs will almost always award free throws to the offensive player when they drive aggressively to the basket. Bradley has the guys who can do that and they need to take advantage of it.
 
It might just be me but it seems like Burch has been limited to a spot up 3-point shooter and is not driving to the basket as much, which I thought was his MO. Not sure why coaching would limit him like that.
 
Da Coach said:
It appears they play a completely different style in late game situations when they are down.
We need to play that way all game.
They play faster, with more intensity, and most notable, they drive to the basket and go up strong and make their layups or get FTs, instead of stopping short and shooting soft layups or fall-away shots that get blocked or hit the front of the rim.
Bradley shot 24 free throws in the 2nd half compared to just 7 in the 1st half, despite being behind nearly all the way. That comes from playing more aggressively.
I've noticed the MVC refs will almost always award free throws to the offensive player when they drive aggressively to the basket. Bradley has the guys who can do that and they need to take advantage of it.
Click to expand...
Right on the money. Many games we just come out and play “normal” effort basketball and get down. This team isn’t gifted or experienced enough to “just play.” We need to come out and scrap from the tip… and we could have a lot of success.

That is what UIC has been doing to teams lately. Need to match that intensity on Sat.
 
Last edited:
Ind. St. beat Ill.St. simply because they made a lot of easy layups in that game. I thought when we went to our zone defense tonight Ind. St. struggled to score. Their shooting percentage was so good because of all the layups they made against us. We were very fortunate to win this game tonight because of all the inside shots we continually missed at the rim.
Happy for the win but Bradley needs to be a lot better offensively if they expect to be in the top 3 of the Valley.
 
This team wins because of their ability to take care of the ball and force turnovers. I can't remember a BU team as good as this one in that regard. We are a good FT shooting team too overall, including our big men.
AJ Smith - gotta give him credit. He has not been a great player and many times a liability, but his fight was a key to this win.

2 games ago DaCoach felt maybe we didn't deserve the win (@ Evansville). I felt this way tonight. Indy St. was the better team for 80% of the game. Not sure we deserved to win, but again, our grit and willingness to hang around and not give in led to ultimate victory.

Hats off to Indiana St. who looked pretty good. We did not - and even for the last 15 uncontested points, it was ugly...but it's a W!!!
Nobody played well tonight IMO...tho Alex (13 pts) and Jaquan (18 pts) played decent enought but both struggled at times.
Burch missed a few easy ones, and Meta was just awful except at the charity stripe.

Big game Saturday to stay in the race. I just feel this team is not talented enough to win the Valley or even finish Top 3. But hey!
It's not February yet, and Wardle's teams rise up the closer it is to Arch Madness.

Last season we were 8-4 after 3 straight losses and finished the #2 seed. If we win next game, we'll be at 8-3.
Just keep winning at home! Steal a few on the road like we have already.
 
Last edited:
Congrats to Coach Wardle and his 200th win at Bradley!!!
I remember when he got #100 - doesn't seem that long ago! Dec., 2021 after winning the Christmas Sun Bowl Invitational in TX)
 
ISU Blue was feeling pretty good about their chances since they took us to triple overtime and with 6:00 left it was looking pretty good to them. But they could never get the lead to double digits and as we've done quite a bit this season we dug in and figured out a way to win, the 200th Bradley career win for Brian Wardle. He is just 3 wins short of tying Jim Molinari for most career Valley wins. There were just some weird stats from this game. BU shot just 35% overall, 5-22 from 3 while ISU Blue shot 52%. BU only had 3 turnovers and 14 steals while ISU had 19 turnovers and we outrebounded them by 2. ISU was just 7-10 from the FT line while we were 26-31. This team just has a lot of self belief that if they are in the game they will pull it out. 1 more weird stat to chew on. We're 10-1 this season when they win the rebounding battle, when JJ score 17 or more points and when we hold teams to 70 or under. It's going to be hard to do at least 2 of those things on Saturday against UIC, who's playing better then anyone in the Valley right now but why not us. With 3 of the greatest teams in Bradley history in attendance I think dem boys will be more than ready to get er done.
 
tomahawk chop said:
Ind. St. beat Ill.St. simply because they made a lot of easy layups in that game. I thought when we went to our zone defense tonight Ind. St. struggled to score. Their shooting percentage was so good because of all the layups they made against us. ...
Click to expand...
This is what I said in the Chat Room... Indiana State was killing Bradley with the effective high screens, that lead to back-cuts allowing their players, to get to the basket for open layups. A zone like they played last season, a 2-3 zone, would have probably prevented most of those. They did play a little 1-3-1 zone, but a 2-3 IMO would have been more effective. It does leave more vulnerability to perimeter shots, but Indiana State was not hurting Bradley as much from outside. They shot 67% on their 2-point shots, and 32% from three. so it might have been worth a chance to try more zone when teams are scoring a lot of layups like last night.
 
Dub said:
Right on the money. Many games we just come out and play “normal” effort basketball and get down. This team isn’t gifted or experienced enough to “just play.” We need to come out and scrap from the tip… and we could have a lot of success.

That is what UIC has been doing to teams lately. Need to match that intensity on Sat.
Click to expand...
Agreed. Frustrating to watch and frustrating to watch the supposed offense in the first half. Feel strongly that both Johnson and Wheeler should be on the floor for 38 minutes a game. I know it's a Wardle thing, but I don't understand the high frequency substitutions. As we all know, this group it collectively bad at rebounding. What's the worry about sticking with a smaller lineup for prolonged periods of time to create turnovers and hopefully some easy ones on the other end. This game was a perfect representation of the lack of basic offensive skills for the Bradley Mount Rushmore of Bad Bigs- Jonovic, Thomas, Yu and Vander K. Doesn't matter who is in, they all lack the ability to score and they don't rebound and their defense off the ball is really bad. Hoping Noah Williams will be able to rebound and defend on and away from the ball next year. Hoping to have another guy bigger who will rebound next year. In the meantime, would love to see Wheeler and Johnson on the floor for 38 minutes each.
 
It wasn't pretty. But got the job done. I like seeing the Freshman play. Zobrist looked more confident as the game went on. Had a defensive lapse where he went under a screen and they knocked a 3 in his high, but came back a minute later and made a great help side defense play.

I think the freshman can help us in Late Feb/Arch if we give them time to grow instead of riding the pine.
 
Yes we need to allow the freshmen to make mistakes and grow. Get in flow of game and let them adapt to the feel and pace at this level. From what I have seen close up Wardle likes to micro manage the game and if you make a mistake you get pulled but to me that is counter productive to growth. Lack of effort/focus yes pull them. But if the effort is there let them play and hold back on micro management and pulling guys as they grow. I thought the team played well when Zobrist was on the floor. He played nice defense and was moving well and doing some good things off the ball.
 
Stockton said:
Agreed. Frustrating to watch and frustrating to watch the supposed offense in the first half. Feel strongly that both Johnson and Wheeler should be on the floor for 38 minutes a game. I know it's a Wardle thing, but I don't understand the high frequency substitutions. As we all know, this group it collectively bad at rebounding. What's the worry about sticking with a smaller lineup for prolonged periods of time to create turnovers and hopefully some easy ones on the other end. This game was a perfect representation of the lack of basic offensive skills for the Bradley Mount Rushmore of Bad Bigs- Jonovic, Thomas, Yu and Vander K. Doesn't matter who is in, they all lack the ability to score and they don't rebound and their defense off the ball is really bad. Hoping Noah Williams will be able to rebound and defend on and away from the ball next year. Hoping to have another guy bigger who will rebound next year. In the meantime, would love to see Wheeler and Johnson on the floor for 38 minutes each.
Click to expand...
My observation Wardle seems to micro manage and pull guys as soon as they make mistakes. Just my interpretation. Maybe some is warranted and perhaps it is things like "guys come on we just went over this or that in pregame". He has been successful so what do I know. :-)
 
Heemeskerk said:
Yes we need to allow the freshmen to make mistakes and grow. Get in flow of game and let them adapt to the feel and pace at this level. From what I have seen close up Wardle likes to micro manage the game and if you make a mistake you get pulled but to me that is counter productive to growth. Lack of effort/focus yes pull them. But if the effort is there let them play and hold back on micro management and pulling guys as they grow. I thought the team played well when Zobrist was on the floor. He played nice defense and was moving well and doing some good things off the ball.
Click to expand...
I actually thought he left Zo on the floor after he missed a couple shots and didn't stop his defender from scoring - was good to see. He seems to have a long leash on Montana this season - maybe the kid just doesn't make many mistakes tho.
 
Kronic42 said:
It might just be me but it seems like Burch has been limited to a spot up 3-point shooter and is not driving to the basket as much, which I thought was his MO. Not sure why coaching would limit him like that.
Click to expand...
Burch did a lot of driving/slashing last night - just didn't finish - he missed an easy 8-foot floater (airball) and 2 or 3 bunny layups. He's got to gain confidence in his "short game" much like I need to on the golf course!!! ;)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top