Northern Iowa (12-9) has no shortage of players who can score and Bradley (12-11) struggled to find their answers for a quartet of Panthers in a 78-65 loss in Cedar Falls, Iowa on Wednesday night.
The Braves’ 4-game win streak was ended after a 15-3 second half run by UNI buried Bradley, who battled back using a 14-0 run late in the game to make the final score closer than how it felt for much of the second half.
WHO:
It was more of a question of ‘Who wasn’t it?’ for Northern Iowa, as Trae Berhow and Noah Carter scored 19 points apiece. AJ Green and Bowen Born joined in double figures with 13 and 15, respectively.
Berhow did not miss a shot, both from the field or the free throw line, for the first 34 minutes. The super-senior nailed five 3-pointers. Carter scored the Panthers’ first eight points of the second half despite the Braves throwing sophomore forward Rienk Mast, senior center Ari Boya and sophomore forward Connor Linke all in coverage at different times.
Junior guard Terry Roberts led Bradley with 18 points and six assists and Mast contributed 12 points and eight rebounds.
WHAT:
The contributing factors in Bradley’s loss looked the same as they did in the Braves’ losses early in the season: struggling to defend 3-pointers and turnovers.
UNI shot 12-34 from behind the arc compared to Bradley’s 7-25 mark and forced the Red and White to commit 18 turnovers. The Braves saw their inexperience rear its head by committing many of those turnovers amidst a Panthers run.
The loss ended Bradley’s win streak at four games and prevented the Braves from winning their fifth MVC game in a row for the first time since the 2007-08 season. UNI was the first team to beat Bradley by double digits since the Braves’ 76-64 loss to Howard on Nov. 13. The Braves and Panthers have now split six of their last seven season series.
WHERE:
The Braves could not complete an MVC sweep in the state of Iowa after beating Drake in Des Moines two weeks ago. Bradley had won its last two games on the road after dropping their first 3 MVC road contests this season.
WHEN:
The Braves shot out of the gates with a 10-3 run to open the contest, thanks to 8 quick points in a two-and-a-half minute span by Roberts. However, UNI erased the lead with a 10-0 run after they went down 12-10 and before a fast break dunk from Boya ended the run. Following the slam, the Braves were only briefly able to bring the deficit down to one possession.
The Panthers led 37-28 at the half and inflated their advantage to 73-48 at the under-8 minute media timeout. Bradley kept UNI scoreless for the next 4 minutes and scored 13 straight on a comeback attempt fueled by Roberts before Green converted an and-one with 3:22 to go that sealed the Panther victory.
WHY:
Head coach Brian Wardle on why the Braves lost: “18 turnovers and 12 3’s given up; you’re never beating Northern Iowa at home. You’re not winning a road game in our league with that.”
Sophomore forward Jayson Kent on defending the 3-point heavy Panthers: “In practice, we worked on guys defending a lot of shooters on the court and we just had too many defensive mistakes but there were times where we were dialed in no matter who was on the court.”
Wardle on UNI’s runs: “I thought Northern Iowa showed experience tonight and we showed inexperience in some key times. We’ve been able to shorten those segments in this winning streak and tonight, they were long segments of poor play on both ends of the floor.”
Kent on the struggle to extend a win streak: “We weren’t as physical as we normally are and we kind of let our foot off the gas because we won four games in a row, but the Missouri Valley is a tough conference.”
Kent on staying upbeat: “We can’t hang [our heads] on this game. If we keep hanging our heads on losses, it’s going to keep rolling to a losing streak. But once we come back in practice, we’re going to tell each other ‘It’s a new team, new day’ and we still got a long season before Arch Madness.”
Wardle on what the loss means ahead of Saturday’s game at Evansville: “It’s going to hopefully light a fire under our guys. We’ve come in very, very aggressive and we’ve got to be the hunters.”
