Bradley runs out of steam, falls to Panthers in semis

40	57

Yesterday looked like Bradley could beat anyone in the conference. But Northern Iowa asserted itself as the conference champion today, dispatching the Braves from the MVC tournament in dominant fashion.

After his 31-point game against Creighton, junior guard Sam Maniscalco was cloaked all day by the Panthers defense. Though he did manage to score 10 points, Maniscalco had little opportunity to have much of an impact on the game.

The Braves (16-15) fell behind big early and never hit enough shots to recover. After a fifth turnover in the half, Bradley went into the under 12-minute timeout down 19-6.

The game never got better as the Panthers (27-4) tenacious defense forced Bradley to settle for a lot of outside jumpers. Even when the Braves got open looks, the shots simply weren't falling and there weren't any second chance opportunities.

Northern Iowa had a 36-19 lead at halftime by holding Bradley to 6-of-21 shooting and 0-of-5 from 3-point range. Even though the game wasn't completely out of reach, it had the feel like one more burst from the Panthers would seal the result.

Yet when the teams came out after the break, the surge didn't happen for either team. Bradley really came out playing inspired defense and held Northern Iowa scoreless for the first five minutes. But the Braves simply couldn't capitalize, only scoring four points during that stretch.

If Bradley had maybe narrowed the gap to 8-10 points, the second half might have been a lot more interesting. Instead, the Panthers went on a 14-3 run during the next five minutes to cement the win.

Note that there was no need to mention any of the Northern Iowa players when describing the flow of the game. That's just how much of a "team" that the entire squad really is. Nobody scored more than 10 points but nine different Panthers did have points in the game.

Their style of play isn't pretty but it simply accumulates victories. Though the team shoots way more threes than teams of the past, Northern Iowa looks a lot like the rugged Southern Illinois teams from a few years ago. Opponents just don't get much of an opportunity to win.

Assist to turnover ratios (15-7 for, 7-14 against) were solid for the Panthers and they also limited Bradley to just six offensive rebounds.

When a team only scores 40 points, it's tough for anyone to really put up much of a stat line. Senior center Sam Singh grabbed eight rebounds (no other Brave had more than three) and junior guard Andrew Warren had 12 points to lead all scorers (eight of those were from the free throw line, though).

Bradley's depth wasn't as big of a factor today since the Panthers play a much less bruising style than Creighton does. But the cumulative effect of the past two games, especially having to turn around in 24 hours and play again seemed to be a major factor in why Bradley couldn't get anything going offensively.

Finishing one game over .500 might be enough for Bradley to be invited into one of the lower level postseason tournaments. But really, a major factor in these events often has to do with money and since the Braves draw well, that might put them ahead of some other teams.

But if this is indeed the final game for the 2009-10 Bradley Braves, the season ended in a similar manner to how the other 30 games were. A few great moments left fans wondering all year whether the team could truly turn the corner. Discouraging defeats continually brought down that optimism.

Because that's really what this season was: average. The final (?) record (16-15), the conference record (9-9), the performances of nearly every key member of the team (some great games for every guy to go along with some non-existent/bad ones) - these all fit the term.

Now the question is where can these guys go from here? Will they continue to develop, like Taylor Brown did, and come back with a similar but better team in 2010-11? Few can question the talent level - fans saw it against the better teams on the schedule. Now everyone will see if the Braves can pull it all together for an improvement next season.

Bradley knocks off Creighton for first time this season

The third time was the charm for the Braves as Bradley knocked off Creighton 81-62 in the quarterfinals of the Missouri Valley Conference tournament. Bradley now faces Northern Iowa tomorrow in the conference semifinals.

Junior guard Sam Maniscalco had an incredible game, scoring 31 points and making 18-of-19 from the free-throw line. Fellow junior guard Andrew Warren also finished in double figures (14 points).

While Creighton nailed 50 percent of its three-pointers in the first two games during the regular season, the shots didn't fall today (9-of-33, 27.3 percent).

Creighton continues dominance at home against Bradley

71	82

Creighton always seemed to bring its best games against Bradley in Omaha. Saturday wasn't any different as the Bluejays nabbed an 11-point victory and secured sole possession of fourth place in the final regular season Missouri Valley Conference standings.

The game might have been lopsided if it weren't for the standout performance by sophomore forward Taylor Brown, who finished with a career high 27 points. He made 12-of-21 from the floor, grabbed eight rebounds and was basically unstoppable the entire game.

Unfortunately for the Braves, Creighton got big contributions from up and down its lineup, especially from Kenny Lawson Jr. Just like Illinois State's Dinma Odikosa did earlier in the season, Lawson took advantage of a big weight differential against sophomore center Will Egolf. He finished with 20 points on 6-of-7 shooting and snagged eight rebounds.

Of course, part of the problem is the Egolf is forced to play out of position due to Bradley's lack of a "bruiser" inside. But players like Lawson and Odiakosa are the primary reason why the Braves are 0-4 against Creighton and Illinois State. Egolf fouled out of this game, officially only playing five minutes while still contributing four points and five rebounds.

These little aspects are what have plagued Bradley the entire season. The bench has not been deep enough to adjust to the different lineups that other teams throw at them. The Braves have been much more successful against smaller, quicker teams.

Because looking at the stats, or even just getting a feel from watching the game, Bradley wasn't really bad yesterday. In fact, the Braves actually played okay but Creighton was just better. The Bluejays led slightly in shooting percentage (44.0-40.0), 3-pointers made (6-2) and free throws made (23-19). Most of the other points of comparison were negligible, which made for a fairly close game.

Probably the most surprising aspect of the game was the performance of freshman guard Jake Eastman, who scored a career high 13 points off the bench. He had been shooting under 50 percent from the free throw line and calmly knocked in all six attempts. Though he has shown some flashes of talent throughout the season, this was the first game Eastman really made a big contribution to a game. Hopefully he can build on this performance going into the MVC tournament and next year.

As great as Eastman and Brown were, guards Sam Maniscalco and Chris Roberts were equally as off. The two combined to make just 2-of-11 from the floor and score just eight points combined. Maniscalco's game was certainly unexpected considering the fact that he'd been playing so well and was on the floor for all 40 minutes.

Bradley will now get one more shot at Creighton, just like last season. The two will face-off in the 4-5 game of the MVC tournament on Friday. The old adage is that it's really tough to beat a team three times in a season. We'll see if that proves to be true this time around.

Photos from the Wichita State game

I've uploaded the pictures I took at last night's game. Enjoy.

Click the photo above to view a slideshow.

A long drive back from Peoria

For the second straight time, five hours of driving was truly worth it to see another classic basketball game. Bradley knocked off Wichita State on senior night, and with the other results in the Valley, now has secured a spot outside of the play-in game next Thursday.

The game was very entertaining, with Bradley jumping out to a huge lead early and sustaining that through halftime. But then Wichita State caught fire from the floor and whittled the entire lead away for the Braves. In the end, two clutch three pointers and steal helped seal a 75-73 victory.

I will have a full recap up tomorrow as well some of the many pictures I took at the game.

Here's how the MVC standings look:

				Conference		Tiebreaker Pts.
			Place	Wins	Losses	Max.	Earned
Northern Iowa			1	14	3	171	123
Wichita State*			2	11	6	177	103
Illinois State*			2	11	6	177	93
Creighton			4	9	8	185	60
Bradley			4	9	8	185	69
Missouri State			6	8	9	187	59
Indiana State			6	8	9	193	57
Drake			7	7	10	193	61
Southern Ill.			9	6	11	203	48
Evansville			10	2	15	207	35

Notes: Wichita State leads the second place tiebreaker based upon playoff points; Creighton currently leads the fourth place tiebreaker as it is 1-0 v. Bradley; Missouri State leads the sixth place tiebreaker based upon a 1-0 record v. Indiana State

Obviously the stunner was Evansville knocking off nationally ranked Northern Iowa yesterday. But this had no real effect on the standings.

The I-74 rivals really strengthened their positions in the standings. Bradley cannot finish lower than 6th, as the loser of the Missouri State-Indiana State game will have 10 losses. Additionally, the Wichita State victory gives Bradley an opportunity to claim the fourth spot with a win in Omaha.

Illinois State also had a big win, making sure that Indiana State would not have a chance to catch the Redbirds in the standings. Bradley (though fans never would admit it) did the Redbirds a serious favor by beating the Shockers. Now Illinois State will likely earn that critical second seed if the the team can find a way to win at Northern Iowa.