'Locked in': Bradley Braves roll past Illinois-Chicago for sixth victory in a row

CHICAGO — The temperatures outside were bone-chilling this weekend as winter storms rolled through Illinois.

Inside the Credit Union 1 Arena on Saturday, Bradley’s Duke Deen and Connor Hickman made it feel like a sauna with outstanding shooting performances that led to a 77-59 basketball win over Illinois-Chicago and BU's sixth win in a row.

The guard duo combined for 48 points, sank all nine of Bradley’s 3-pointers and helped Bradley lead from tipoff to final buzzer after opening the game with a 19-3 run.

“I just like Chicago, it’s a cool city,” Deen laughed, as to what was behind his near-career high day. “But I feel like it's just work, honestly. Once I trust my shot, not rush my shot and just do what I know I can do, they'll fall.”

BOX SCORE: Bradley 77, UIC 59

Five out of Bradley's six wins in the streak, spanning back to a Dec. 21 win over SIU-Edwardsville, came by at least 18 points, putting the Braves right back toward the top of the Missouri Valley Conference.

“We can contribute those six wins in a row to practice, our practices that have been intense,” Deen said. “Practice is kind of harder than the games, in my opinion, to be honest. It's very intense practices, and they just carried over now.”

'Locked in' at the start

Hickman began the contest with a bang, making a mid-range jumper through contact while falling backwards, then hitting a 3-pointer in his defender’s face to help the Braves jump out to a 10-1 run to start.

Defensively, graduate forward Malevy Leons helped BU stymie the Flames with a 1-for-11 start from the field, five turnovers forced and four blocked shots in the first eight minutes. UIC’s first field goal didn’t come until the clock read 13:35. Shortly afterwards, a Deen deep ball and a slam from senior forward Darius Hannah put Bradley up 19-3.

Tone: Set.

“I thought the first 10 minutes of the game, we were really locked in,” Bradley coach Brian Wardle said. “I was really proud of the discipline we played with.”

Later in the first, the Flames finally shook their initial woes and went on an 11-2 run to cut the Bradley lead to 28-21 after a 4-point play from Steven Clay with 3:37 remaining.

Deen, however, was right there and picked the Braves up. He dropped in his second trey of the game from way out to put Bradley back up by double figures, made another one, then another one and tacked on a mid-range shot in under two minutes. He went into the halftime locker room, where the Braves led 39-26, with 18 points.

Deen’s personal 11-point spurt all came while Hickman was catching a breather on the bench. Deen (26 points, three assists) and Hickman (22 points, four assists) used the positive momentum to share the ball well also, contributing heavily to Bradley’s 21 assists on 27 made field goals.

“When I get the ball to Duke and he's running a play, I know something good is gonna happen and I think he thinks vice versa,” Hickman said. “So we're able to give each other breaks and just know we're always going to be in the right spots.”

Said Wardle: “I love when [Deen and Hickman] are both going like that because it opens up a lot of stuff and you need your guards to put up some numbers when teams are switching like [UIC did]. They were able to do that, and it was fun to watch.”

Braves able to hold off late charge

Hickman scored eight of Bradley’s first 10 points coming out of halftime and the Braves’ lead crossed 20 after a layup from Leons that pushed the team to a 55-33 advantage.

But the Flames grew hotter and made five of their first seven 3-point shots out of the break. UIC guard Christian Jones, who finished with a career-high 25 points, accounted for two of those deep balls. Bradley, meanwhile, went nearly six minutes without a field goal.

Jones then drove in for a layup and following a free throw from Marquise Kennedy, formerly of Loyola Chicago, UIC had cut the lead to 62-50 with 8:09 left in the game. However, none other than Deen and Hickman were right there for the Braves as the former drained a corner 3 before the latter did the same from the wing on Bradley’s next possession.

“The first half, I loved our defense, I loved a lot of the possessions that we had but the second half now is a different story,” Wardle said. “That's where I was on my guys … [but] it was another good team effort [with] guys stepping up in big times.”

All that Bradley essentially had to do from there was run out the clock and held on to advance to 12-5 overall and 4-2 in MVC play. Outside of Hickman and Deen’s efforts of 20-plus points, Leons finished with eight points and a team-high 12 rebounds while Hannah had a well-rounded seven points, five rebounds and four assists.

The Braves only turned the ball over six times and turned 13 UIC turnovers into 15 points on the other end.

“Anytime a team switches [all the time], you can get to the offensive glass and we were able to do that the second half," Wardle said, "but taking care of the ball on the road is always big and I thought even though our defense wasn't very good in the second half, we took care of the ball on offense."

Bradley returns to the court for a 7 p.m., Jan. 17 road game at Southern Illinois and returns home on Jan. 20 for a 1 p.m. game vs. Belmont.

This article originally appeared on Journal Star: College basketball: Bradley Braves face Illinois-Chicago in Valley game