Bradley came out of the gates blazing against Southern Illinois on Tuesday evening. Then, with the score 11-0 in Bradley’s favor five and a half minutes into the game, the Braves, coming off of seven wins in eight games, simply got too comfortable.
The final score – a 65-57 loss that drops the Braves to 15-12 on the season – doesn’t jump out on paper; but a 32-4 first half run by the Salukis does.
The Braves overpowered Southern Illinois (14-13) in the paint, with four of their first five buckets coming from the post, where Bradley had a distinct size advantage over SIU. Bradley head coach Brian Wardle knew it was too early to declare victory, though.
“I think we celebrated that first timeout like we won Arch Madness and that bothered me,” Wardle said. “That’s immaturity coming out in a group. There’s 36 minutes left to go, we’re on the road against a hungry Southern Illinois team. You don’t celebrate like you just won the tournament.”
Knowing that Bradley had recently defied the “young team” stereotype that had stuck on the Braves since the start of the season, Marcus Domask, Ben Coupet Jr. and the Salukis gunned for the target on the Braves’ back. From the last 13 minutes of the first half, their shots hit bullseye.
After Domask and Lance Jones ignited a 9-0 SIU run, Coupet Jr. took over by draining a bucket, which knotted the score at 11 midway through the opening frame, and a trio of 3-pointers to put the hosts ahead 22-15.
The duo of Domask and Coupet Jr. ripped apart the Braves’ defense for another run that put Southern Illinois ahead 32-15 with 3:46 left in the first. The Braves meanwhile could hardly buy a bucket due to the Salukis locking down the post for sophomore forward Rienk Mast and company.
“They pushed the ball, they’re one of the slowest tempo teams in the country,” Wardle said. “They saw us jogging back on us, not talking. Give Coupet credit, he really shot the ball well. Domask made some really tough ones too…and we let him get going.”
“Sometimes they [double-teamed], sometimes they didn’t,” Mast added. “I think we bit on some shot fakes and some jab steps a little too much and they got straight to the rim.”
The Salukis went into the halftime break ahead 41-22, a product of the Braves not communicating and relapsing to performances that were reminiscent of early in the season.
“This can’t happen,” Wardle said. “I thought we became a little front-running in the first half and got quiet again and that hasn’t happened to us in a while.”
Both teams played tug-of-war in the second half with neither side gaining significant ground until a Domask 3-pointer put the Salukis ahead 52-27 with just under 15 minutes to play.
Domask, who averaged a touch over 14 points a game entering the contest, sank 11 of his first 13 shots and finished with 25 points. Coupet Jr. added 19, with 17 of those coming in the first half.
However, the Braves began to put things together midway through the second half after graduate guard Mikey Howell used an and-one to spark a personal 5-2 run with 11:17 left to play. Freshman guard Connor Hickman added six points of his own on consecutive possessions to cut the deficit to 58-46 with just over six minutes left.
“Guys showed character, they responded, they fought,” Wardle said. “I was looking for every way to get back in the game and we gave ourselves an opportunity but the bottom line is, you’re probably going to run out of gas at the end of the game if you’re fighting back like that.”
With the clock looming as one of their biggest enemies, the Braves had enough in the tank to inch closer after Southern Illinois split pairs of free throws on four straight trips to the line.
After being held to five points in the first half, junior guard Terry Roberts came on strong in the closing stages, converting on a pair of driving layups and a jumper to trim the SIU lead to 61-54 in the final two minutes.
“We did not surrender at all,” Mast said. “I was happy about our fight in the second half but if you dig yourself such a big hole, it’ll be really tough.”
Roberts led the Braves in scoring with 11, while Mast contributed 10 points and nine rebounds. However, the Braves shot 41% from the field with just six free throw attempts while SIU shot 51% and got to the line 21 times.
“I told them they would let us back in,” Wardle said. “I thought we were there but the bottom line is 17 turnovers and they shot 15 more free throws than us. You’re never going to win a road game with those two stats.”
Junior guard Ville Tahvanainen sank a corner three off of a dish from Roberts to make it 62-57 with under 90 seconds to go, and Bradley had a chance to make it a one-possession game with 54 seconds left. However, Roberts tried to keep a ball in bounds with a pass to Mast but the ball hit a referee and deflected out of bounds. SIU took possession and made three free throws to lock up their seventh MVC win.
“I liked our competitive spirit in the second half,” Wardle said. “There was no option though. We had an opportunity and a turnover costed us at that time too.”
With the loss, Bradley falls to 9-6 in conference play and back to fifth place in the MVC standings. With three games left on the horizon before Arch Madness, Wardle eschewed the idea of taking a positive lesson away from the defeat.
“We’ve had enough tough losses this year,” Wardle said. “We should know better. My veterans should have enough experience now; we’re battle tested.”
For Mast and the rest of the team, Tuesday’s result serves as a reminder that the Braves are still mortal and have not reached their peak yet. The Braves will have the opportunity to gain revenge on rival Illinois State on Saturday afternoon at Carver Arena.
“This is bringing us back to earth,” Mast said. “I think we were up there a little too much and showed us that we’re not there yet and still got a lot of work to do. We got three games left; I don’t think this [game] should be an extreme concern but we definitely got to improve.”
