Game Twenty-Three Recap: Northern Iowa @ Bradley

61	58

Northern Iowa stunned Bradley 61-58 with five 3-pointers in the last 3:21 of the game to win its seventh straight road game and 11th overall.

The Panthers (17-6, 11-1) trailed 58-52 after guard Sam Maniscalco made two free throws with 1:38 to play. But Northern Iowa would get a trey in each of its last three possessions, the final one coming from Johnny Moran with five seconds left in the game.

The shocking finish veils a truly spirited effort from Bradley (13-10, 7-5). The host team trailed for nearly 28 minutes until a three point play by Maniscalco gave the Braves its first lead at 39-38. Maniscalco finished with a game high 19 points, scoring a number of his baskets in the first half when Bradley was having some trouble scoring.

Forward Theron Wilson also played well while battling foul trouble the entire game (13 points, five rebounds). But it was the post players for the Braves who really made some key contributions. Center David Collins finally showed some aggressiveness and ended up with 11 points, six rebounds and two dunks (both on plays where he might ordinarily try to lay it up).

Forward/center Sam Singh also chipped in six points. Ordinarily when the Braves get 17 from their post players, they win.

But, as is with any loss, there were also negatives. Northern Iowa center Jordan Eglseder was simply unstoppable in the first half, scoring all 12 of his points before halftime. Neither Collins or Singh seemed to pose much of a challenge and never received help from the rest of the Bradley defense who was overly concerned with shutting down the Panther 3-point attack.

The Braves tried to adjust during the break, focusing more attention on Eglseder. Credit Northern Iowa coach Ben Jacobsen for shifting his offensive focus to forward Adam Koch. The senior hit all 10 of his free throw attempts in the game and helped force Bradley into bad foul trouble.

That's a big reason why Northern Iowa keeps winning. The Panthers have so many different options that whoever seems to be able to exploit a mismatch gets the ball. Point guard Kwadzo Ahelegbe took the reigns from Koch as the second half progressed, beating just about any Bradley defender who was matched up with him.

As the Braves defense had to start helping on Ahelegbe's drives to the hoop, this opened up a few layups for Lucas O'Rear as well as the 3-point barrage to finish the game. Ahelegbe had an assist on five of the last seven baskets for the Panthers.

While Bradley certainly could have defended better in the last few possessions of the game, give a ton of credit to the Panthers. Some of these makes were closely guarded and the Braves couldn't do much about it. Northern Iowa doesn't go 7-0 in league road games without making some very difficult shots.

Bradley's offensive execution didn't get it done either in the final moments. Guard Dodie Dunson, who had one of his worst games in awhile (2 points, 1-7 shooting), committed a bad turnover by dribbling the ball off of his foot. Maniscalco had another chance to make a game winning shot, but missed a layup in the waning moments for the second straight game.

Up next:

Another close game goes against the Braves and now they are falling back to the pack in the conference. Bradley temporarily sits in fourth place with all other teams in action tomorrow and faces two tough road games coming up (at Drake, at Creighton).

After such a promising start, the Braves are in danger of coming back to .500 if the road swing doesn't go well. The injuries to Andrew Warren and Will Egolf seem to be catching up with Bradley as the conference season goes on. The depth simply isn't as good as the top teams in the conference.

Though they could certainly finish higher, I think a 4th-6th place finish will be where the Braves end February. Drake is one of the teams battling for position and Bradley needs this next game even more than the Northern Iowa game (who weren't likely to be caught, even with a Bradley win).

Bradley @ Drake, 7:05 p.m., Sat. 2/7

(Interesting side note: As I wrote this story, I had no prior knowledge of what headline the PJ Star would use for their story. Yet, we both came out with "stunned" as the verb describing this one. I guess that one really sums up this game.)