Bradley uses second half surge to pull away from NIU

63	49

Scoring only 19 points in a half doesn't generally translate into many victories. Luckily for Bradley, the second half was as good as the first one was bad.

The Braves (5-2) shot an absurd 68 percent (17-of-25) from the floor during the final 20 minutes en route to a 63-49 victory at the NIU Convocation Center. Junior guard Andrew Warren led three Bradley players in double figures, helping erase a 20-19 halftime deficit.

Forget about poor rebounding, turnovers or any other reason a score might be that low. Simply put, neither team could hit anything in the first half. Bradley shot 36 percent (9-of-25) and Northern Illinois was worse at 33.3 percent (9-of-27).

Part of the issue could have been that the referees weren't calling any fouls on either team for the first 10-12 minutes. In fact, NIU didn't commit a personal foul until under the 8-minute mark. This fact certainly didn't coincide with how the Huskies had been committing 24 fouls per game this season.

If either team could have had more free-throw opportunities, that might have broken up the flow (or in this case, lack thereof) and possibly gotten someone into more of a rhythm.

The offense was generally getting good shots except for the surprising amount of turnovers. Maybe some of those issues could be explained by a little jet lag after flying home from Las Vegas this past weekend and having to take a bus back north to DeKalb.

For a team that doesn't play the biggest lineups, NIU (1-5) did rebound pretty well (33-32 overall) and limited Bradley to only six offensive boards. But when a team shoots 1-of-20 from 3-point range, it is going to lose unless it can get an large amount of second chance points. NIU only had eight.

The Braves had to get more minutes than usual from center Anthony Thompson and forward/center Sam Singh. Starting center Will Egolf struggled with foul trouble the entire game and only played 16 minutes. Singh did manage to grab five rebounds, but overall the duo didn't contribute enough for Bradley.

Part of this apparent lack of production has to do with the way Bradley runs its offense, though. The Braves have talented slashers with good mid-range shooting abilities. As a result, the low post players and point guards (especially when the threes aren't falling) don't score as much. But in the case of this current Bradley roster, the best players play the 2/3/4 positions and the offense is in place to suit their abilities.

Warm up the bus

As expected, Bradley fans traveled very well to this game. If this were a weekend contest, there probably would have been more people actually. But for a Wednesday evening game, Bradley fans still had at least a third of the total crowd (3,064 overall).

Even more important was how vocal the Bradley crowd was. This made for a pretty lively environment considering the small overall crowd size. The nastiness was kept to a minimum (which can't always be said for other intrastate schools) and made for an enjoyable college basketball atmosphere.

Game pictures

Unfortunately a lot of my game pictures turned out very blurry. Maybe it was the lighting because my current camera generally takes good indoor shots. The shots I do have though will be uploaded tomorrow for your enjoyment. Thanks!