Bittersweet victory for Braves in home opener

69	74

Post-game discussion should have been focused on Bradley (1-1) wining its home opener Sunday against a relentless Idaho State (0-2) team, 74-69. But instead, the Braves will have to deal with the loss of yet another player to injury.

Senior guard Dodie Dunson will miss the remainder of the season after breaking two bones in his left forearm during a painful two-play sequence in the second half of Sunday's game.

First, Dunson tried to make a steal and crashed hard to the floor with Idaho State's Donnie Carson. On the next possession, Dunson slashed down the baseline and the Bengals' Austin Kilpatrick bumped him in the air and the Bradley senior fell awkwardly onto his arm with 12:28 left.

He laid on the floor in obvious pain and needed assistance to get up and head to the locker room. Dunson is expected to make a full recovery and will apply for a medical redshirt in order to return to the Braves lineup in 2010-11.

The scary incident really overshadowed what had been a great game for Dunson. He finished the game with as the team's co-leader in points with 16, making 4-of-6 attempts from 3-point range. After Bradley got down 10-4 early, Dunson had 14 of the Braves next 19 points, helping the team turn a six-point deficit into a six-point lead, 23-17.

The talented duo of Broderick Gilchrest (19 points, 4 assists) and Amorrow Morgan (18 points, 4 rebounds) consistently kept the Bengals in the game. Though these guards were indeed talented, the Braves had too many breakdowns where they got beat one-on-one defensively.

The contribution from freshman guard Dyricus Simms-Edwards stood out more than any other player in the game. Simms-Edwards had a night where he really filled up the stat sheet: 12 points, two rebounds, two assists, one block, and one steal.

He aggressively took the ball to the hoop and finished strong on multiple occasions. Simms-Edwards also knocked down two critical free throws that gave Bradley a 64-63 lead it would never relinquish. He capped off the stellar effort by making an acrobatic save of a ball going out of bounds to junior guard Sam Maniscalco in the final minute.

Like any freshman, Simms-Edwards will likely have his moments where he struggles. But if he can provide an effort like this on a consistent basis, the loss of Dunson (at least in an on-the-court manner) will be greatly lessened.

The other Bradley guards also had good games, with junior Andrew Warren leading the way with 16 points. His slashing ability looked sharp and opened up many good looks from his accurate mid-range game.

Senior Chris Roberts had 12 points, including an important three-point play to extend the Braves' lead to 67-63. And even though he had a bad shooting night, Maniscalco hit a big 3-pointer on the next possession to extend the lead out to five points. The junior had 13 points on 3-of-11 shooting.

Lack of interior presence

The Braves played its second straight game without Taylor Brown, who was serving his final game of a suspension. Without the team's best rebounder, it clearly had an effect on Bradley's performance on the glass. Idaho State won the rebounding battle 36-26 with 17 coming on the offensive side of the court.

This disadvantage resulted in 42 points in the paint and 21 second-chance points for the Bengals. Surely some of the problem can be attributed to Brown's absence, but this aspect simply has to get better if Bradley is going to win on a consistent basis.

Head coach Jim Les' four-guard lineup may have been out of necessity but this just isn't a recipe for winning games. Sophomore Will Egolf and senior Sam Singh grabbed four rebounds each, but this just isn't enough when the Braves are playing such small ball.

Hopefully Egolf will continue to improve and Bradley can get something out of young players like Milos Knezevic and Anthony Thompson. The Braves have size on the roster for once but it is uncertain how the rotation will shake out as the season goes on.

Next up for Bradley

The Braves will have a week off and play again Sunday against the Wofford Terriers. Who? Well, a team most fans probably haven't heard of took Pittsburgh down to the wire before losing 63-60 on the road.

True, Pittsburgh is very inexperienced and likely will take time to gel as a team. But, any team that can go into an environment like that cannot be taken lightly. Unlike Bradley, Wofford will be playing its third game in six days when it comes to Peoria.

Interestingly enough, Wofford also started four guards in its last game, so that would appear to favor Bradley. A full preview will be coming soon.

(Note: Due to the game recap being pushed back to tonight, I will be publishing my first conference ratings tomorrow, Tuesday, Nov. 17.)

Recap to come

Just in case anyone is looking for my recap, I wasn't available to watch the game live last night. But, I've got it on the bubraves.tv archive and will watch it this evening and provide a full recap. How's about my prediction for the final score - almost nailed it exactly!

Idaho State comes to Peoria for home opener

The Bengals from Idaho State will be Bradley's first home opponent of the season. Both teams coming off road losses on Friday night square off at Carver Arena tonight.

Bradley's press release: (.pdf)

Idaho State lost its opener 88-68 against future Bradley opponent, Iowa State. This game wasn't really close as the Cyclones led early and never looked back. The Bengals started three guards and had nine guys play at least ten minutes in the game. Two of those guards finished in double figures, senior Amorrow Morgan (15 points, 4 turnovers) and junior Broderick Gilchrest (21 points, 9-11 FT, 5 turnovers).

Morgan finished as a first-team all-conference player in the Big Sky last season, while Gilchrest is a transfer who started his career at Middle Tennessee and played last season in junior college.

It's tough to analyze just one box score from a team, but Iowa State seemed to rattle a veteran squad from Idaho. The Bengals had just five assists but committed 14 turnovers.

Here's the official release from Idaho State: (.pdf)

"Idaho State returns four starters and seven letterwinners from last years’ 13-19 team that advanced to the semifinals of the Big Sky Tournament for the second consecutive year. While the Bengals lost a couple of important cogs in Matt Stucki and Lucas Steijn, they return six seniors, including Amorrow Morgan, who led the team in scoring a year ago with a 13.6 average, and he also added 13.6 assists. Also back is leading rebounder Demetrius Monroe, who averaged 5.3 rebounds per game but has been slowed by an injury in the preseason. ISU also returns their leading shot blocker in Deividas Busma (29 blocks) and leading three-point shooter in Austin Kilpatrick (34 threes, but .417 percentage in conference play)."

Some matchup information:

"Idaho State has faced off just once against Bradley, and it was so long against John F. Kennedy was the President. The Bengals lost to Bradley in their only meeting in November of 1963, with Bradley winning 101-70 in Peoria. Joe O’Brien has not faced off against a Missouri Valley Conference Team. Overall against the current configuration of the MVC ISU is 3-9 all-time, and 1-7 on the road (Bradley 0-1, Creighton 2-5, Drake 0-1, Illinois State 2-2, Indiana State 1-0). The only road win came ion January 3, 1953 when Idaho State defeated Creighton in Omaha 69-68."

Tips to victory

This appears to be the kind of game Bradley should be able to win fairly easily. The Braves should have confidence after their positive showing at BYU on Friday. As long as they don't overlook Idaho State and just continue to play solid defense, this should be the first win of the year.

Final Score: Bradley 76 Idaho State 68

In Case You Missed It

Missouri Valley

Indiana State 88
Nebraska Kearney 58

Local story (Tribstar.com)
Statistics (.pdf, University website)

Northern Iowa 71
Nebraska Kearney 65

Local story (WCFcourier.com)
Statistics (University website)

National

The first big upset, as Rider wins at No. 18 Mississippi State, 88-74.

BYU's coach gets an contract extension.

Considering his track record and how the Cougars looked against Bradley tonight, it appears well-deserved.

Northwestern star forward Kevin Coble may need surgery.

Arkansas goes crazy, including an incredible shooting performance by Rotnei Clarke.

SI.com writer Michael Rosenberg writes an interesting article about players being "forced" to attend college.

BYU holds off determined Braves in season opener

60	70

Normally double-digit losses leave fans angry, disappointed and frustrated. But as BYU (1-0) left the court with a 70-60 victory, the road team had to feel pretty encouraged about the upcoming season.

Consider the circumstances: Bradley (0-1) had to open up the season against a team that has only lost three home games in the past four seasons. BYU was picked to win the Mountain West Conference and some think the team could win a few games in the NCAA tournament as well. Then starting forward Taylor Brown was listed as ineligible ▬ this could have been a blowout.

The Braves couldn't shoot in the first half (6-of-22, 27.3 percent) and only trailed 32-25 at the break. After a timeout, head coach Jim Les ran one of his familiar alley-oop plays for senior guard Chris Roberts. The slam tied the game at 39-39 with 14:48 left.

The Cougars responded with a 15-6 run that was the defining moment of the game. The 5 1/2 minute stretch included two Bradley turnovers, a missed free throw (the team only hit 4-of-10 in the second half) and huge momentum swing.

Les' teams always seem to have one last push in them and in this game, that allowed Bradley to keep the game within 7-8 points for most of the remaining half. Other teams may have folded after that run but credit Bradley for hanging in there against a very good team.

The combination of BYU's star players, forward Jimmer Fredette and forward Jonathan Tavernari, were too much for Bradley to handle. Fredette made 12-of-14 free throw attempts and scored a game high 25 points. Tavernari didn't have his best shooting game, but still hit three 3-pointers and finished with 13.

Though not as dynamic, Bradley's top trio also had a pretty good game. Roberts had a team-high 16 points, but still showed why he can be such a frustrating player. The good certainly outweighed the bad, as he had five rebounds, two steals, a block and that big dunk. But, at a critical stretch in the game where Bradley trailed by 5-7 points, Roberts missed three opportunities at the free-throw line.

Junior guard Sam Maniscalco had 15 points, hitting 3-of-5 attempts from behind the 3-point line and all six of his free throws. Fellow junior guard Andrew Warren, who played in his first regular season game since sitting out all of 2008-09 with a foot injury, also finished in double figures with 13. Warren was clearly a bit rusty, but the potential is obviously still there for a big comeback season.

From a team stats perspective, these teams played very evenly. Bradley hit 7-of-18 and BYU hit 7-of-19 from 3-point range. The Cougars held a slight advantages in rebounding (24-22) and turnovers (11-15). If the home team could have shot better from the free-throw line (70.4 percent), it might have won more easily.

BYU simply hit more shots than Bradley did (22-of-55 versus 18-of-50 for the Braves). In a game where most other factors were even, that was the difference.

Noteworthy performances

Sophomore forward Taylor Brown was held out of the game by head coach Jim Les as a result of a violation of team rules. This likely is a result of an on-campus incident in September where Brown was arrested on a battery charge. In the big picture, this was a good move by Les as he continued to show that inappropriate conduct (no matter the severity, circumstances, etc.) needs to be handled with proper discipline. Brown surely would have helped tonight but most likely woudn't have changed the outcome. All indications at this point are that this will be the only game Brown will miss.

Freshman guard Dyricus Simms-Edwards surprised with a very good performance in his first game. His stat line doesn't look gaudy (two rebounds, two assists, two turnovers), but he really provided valuable minutes, especially on the defensive side of the ball. Expect him to continue to receive 10-15 minutes per game if he continues his steady play.

Sophomore center Anthony Thompson really needs to start turning the corner this season. After a disappointing rookie season, he started out 2009-10 with a two-point, three-rebound performance. Again, nothing eye-dropping here but his play showed some early progress that should hopefully lead to more regular minutes.

Senior guard Dodie Dunson was nearly invisible, getting shut out from the scoreboard in 25 minutes and grabbing just two rebounds. But the good news most Bradley fans know about Dunson is that he's a streaky player and could go for 18 on Sunday against Idaho State.

Coming up next

After an encouraging performance on the road, the Braves come home looking for their first win of the season on Sunday against Idaho State. The Bengals lost tonight to another common Bradley opponent, Iowa State, 88-68 in Ames, Iowa.