Answering 6 questions from Bradley basketball's exhibition victory over St. Ambrose

PEORIA — There’s a saying in sports: “You either win or learn.”

The Bradley men’s basketball team both won and learned (maybe a little more than it expected to) in a 74-61 exhibition win over St. Ambrose on Wednesday night.

The Braves saw good things, aspects that need improvement, and a lot of rotations in the new-look squad’s first time against outside competition. Even though Bradley welcomed five newcomers — two freshman and three transfers — the nucleus also remains familiar.

BOX SCORE: Bradley vs. St. Ambrose

Here are six questions coming out of the exhibition victory at Carver Arena.

How did Bradley win the game?

Malevy Leons, an all-Missouri Valley Conference first-team pick, and returning starting guards Duke Deen and Connor Hickman led the Braves to a game-opening 13-0 lead which they never looked back from — but also a lead that never significantly grew against the NAIA opponent.

“You got how many minutes logged together with those three guys in major games, not just exhibition games, but conference finals and conference championships?” Braves assistant Mike Bargen asked. “Their comfort level … is going to be much greater than some of the guys that are new.”

Bradley coach Brian Wardle felt ill following the game and was unavailable to meet with the media.

Following the 13-point run, the Braves allowed the Fighting Bees to outscore them 37-28 in the second half, shoot 46 percent from the field, and outrebound them 38-31.

“All those things that we hang our hat on and take pride in, we didn't show up ready to do tonight,” Bargen said. "I think that's our biggest focus this week.”

Said Hickman: “There’s a lot to learn from it. I thought we broke down in a lot of our principles and what we do, so tomorrow we’ll come out more prepared and stick to more of what we do.”

How did the veterans play?

With the departure of Bradley forward Rienk Mast, Leons will take on an increased leadership role. That became apparent early, as the reigning MVC Defensive Player of the Year scored five points in BU’s opening run and helped set up Deen for a pair of 3-pointers.

Bradley began the game shooting 5-of-6 from the field but made only four of their next 15 shots from the floor as St. Ambrose cut the lead to 23-17 with 6 minutes left in the first half. When the Braves needed to regroup, the team found a security blanket in Leons, Deen and Hickman.

“You have all kinds of parts in a car and if your engine is broken, then it doesn't go,” Bargen said. “If your tires are flat, it doesn't work. So everybody has just as important of a role for us to be good, even down to Sam and Cade on the bench. (Leons) does a lot of things for us, but in terms of overall value to the team, he is just as important as everybody else.”

Leons hit a corner three to push the lead to 10, then junior swingman Christian Davis buried one from the same spot on the following possession. Leons followed by slamming in a fast break dunk following a steal, Hickman sunk a 3-pointer, then senior forward Darius Hannah threw down one a poster dunks over a St. Ambrose defender to highlight a 23-6 push that gave them a 46-24 advantage at halftime.

The Braves also turned 14 first-half turnovers from St. Ambrose into a 19-0 points off turnover advantage in the first half.

“We were talking a lot in those runs and really dove into the details,” Leons said. “We’ve got to make those runs are longer, like get them for 35 minutes.”

How did the newcomers look?

Wednesday was the first chance for many to get a look at Bradley’s new roster pieces, namely transfers Emarion Ellis (Marquette), Trey Pettigrew (Nevada), Kyle Thomas (Eastern Illinois), along with highly-regarded freshmen Demarion Burch and Almar Atlason.

Atlason was the first to come off the bench and impressed in the first half with a pair of 3-pointers and three of a team-high four assists. The departure of Mast left a large hole, especially in versatility at the forward spot, but Bradley is confident that their new weapon from Iceland can begin to step into a similar role this season.

“We got some versatility in him and are able to move him around in terms of what the game plan looks like each night,” Bargen said. “The biggest thing for him is he’s just got to continue to grow on the defensive side of the ball. Being able to guard multiple positions is just as important to be able to play offensively in multiple positions.”

Burch played 17 minutes off the bench and finished as Bradley’s second-leading scorer with 11 points, just behind Leons’ 14. The freshman sparkplug played the game at a frenetic pace on both sides, forcing three steals that led to quick points, but also committed four turnovers and four fouls.

“He's extremely talented,” Bargen said. “He's still trying to figure out how college basketball is different than high school, and I think you see some of those peaks and valleys for him, those are all learning experiences.”

Ellis and Pettigrew both come from other high-level squads in the college basketball realm, but neither has played much in their college careers. The former sat out the entirety of last season with an injury and averaged six minutes in 14 games during his freshman year at Marquette. Ellis forced three steals and shot 1-for-4 from the field in 20 minutes on Wednesday.

Pettigrew, a native of Chicago, played 27 games with Nevada last season but did not start. The sophomore only scored once, but rather impressively on a baseline drive in the second half that he spun heavily off the backboard while crashing to the hardwood.

Thomas did not play on Wednesday due to “a violation of team standards,” according to Bargen.

“It's kind of difficult because they're all brand new, but they're very talented players,” Bargen said of the newcomers. “It was a good learning experience for them tonight to have to play on their own and not be able to use the older players to kind of guide them.”

What does Bradley need to improve?

The Braves took their starters out of the game midway through the second half after a layup from Davis gave them a 63-38 lead. From there, the Bees took advantage of a group that’s still learning the ins and outs of Bradley’s intricate defense and outscored them 23-11 down the stretch. The visitors finished by shooting 50 percent (7-of-14) from 3-point range.

“We didn't really have as much of a competitive spirit as we've shown in practice,” Bargen said. “We hang our hat on (defense) in this program, and those are all things that we'll need to continue to improve upon if we're going to be the team that we want to be.”

Offensively, the Braves endured a 1-for-9 stretch from the field late in the game and shot the same mark from 3-point territory in the second half.

“We still need to find our identity,” Leons said. “We compete, defend and rebound; we’ve got to keep talking about it. Today, we only had one second-chance point, and I feel like that’s part of our identity.”

Who’s the starting five?

So what will Bradley’s starting lineup look like Nov. 6, when the open the regular season against Alabama-Birmingham, who advanced to the NIT Championship last year?

Uncertain. Deen, Leons and Hickman are all safe bets to be in the group, and Hannah is a likely contender to join them. The fifth spot on Wednesday went to Serbian sophomore center Ahmet Jonovic, who finished with four points, three rebounds and two blocks, plus being a big screen-setter in 15 minutes on the court.

“He really works at it, and I was happy to see him get that first basket tonight,” Bargen said. “He’s a really physical presence for us and someone we're going to need, especially in these early nonconference games. It's a work in progress, and he’s a young big, but he loves to work and I think that his future is very bright.”

Davis is also a player who could sneak into Bradley’s starting rotation; the junior put up eight points against the Fighting Bees and offered versatility at playing both guard and forward. Atlason and Ellis led the Braves in playing time off the bench with nearly 21 minutes each.

“We’re not 100 percent sure (on the starting five), right now, we're still trying to figure out that group,” Bargen said. “We have a lot of interchangeable parts and different styles so some of that may come game-by-game.”

What's next for Bradley?

The Braves travel to UAB on Monday evening, then host Utah State, who beat the Braves 84-62 last season, on Saturday. But for Wednesday, the biggest takeaway is that the Braves will collectively have to spend time re-establishing the identity that took them to the MVC championship last season.

“If we don't guard better than we did tonight, we're not going to win the UAB game,” Bargen said. “We've played against Coach (Andy) Kennedy in the past at Ole Miss, and if you don't defend his teams, they are going to run you out of the gym.”

“We have to play like we're a hungry team,” Hickman added. “We are one but we need to come out and show it.”

Bravely speaking

Twelve Braves scored on Wednesday night, including forward Goanar Biliew who displayed a newfound 3-point shooting stroke with a corner deep ball late in the fourth. … The Braves were outshot 46 percent to 40 percent. … Bradley has not lost an exhibition game in the Brian Wardle era. … St. Ambrose scored 54 bench points and was led by Ignacio Dacunda’s 17. … The Braves fell to South Dakota St. 81-65 in 2021 the last time that they played their first non-exhibition game of the season on the road. … Bradley shot 80 percent (16-20) from the free-throw line. … BU had 11 assists on their first 15 made field goals.

This article originally appeared on Journal Star: Bradley Braves basketball: BU defeats St. Ambrose in exhibition game, score