Bradley basketball extends winning streak with 3-point fueled blowout victory over Belmont

PEORIA — Belmont broke the Bradley men's basketball team's 17-game home win streak last season with its victory at Carver Arena.

This time, the Braves made Belmont part of theirs.

Just one day short of a full calendar year since Belmont's Ben Sheppard hit a game-winning layup in the final seconds, the Braves made a near program-record 18 3-pointers in a 95-72 victory against the Bruins.

The Braves (14-5, 6-2) hadn’t forgotten about last year’s heartbreak, and it motivated them to their eighth consecutive win.

BOX SCORE: Bradley 95, Belmont 72

“We remember what they did to us last year," BU's Malevy Leons said, "so we just to make sure we were locked in because last year, we were up as well and they came back."

Bradley didn't allow the Bruins to come back this season, using big scoring runs and big 3-pointers. Many of those runs favored Bradley, who used separate 15-0 and 16-0 stretches of outscoring Belmont and finished with 58 percent shooting mark against the 3-point-happy Bruins.

“Offensively, I’m proud of the execution,” Bradley coach Brian Wardle said. “I thought Mike Bargen on my staff called a great game, I mean he was on fire play-calling on the bench and seeing the matchups and going after certain things offensively.

"The guys, obviously, got to make the shot to make the plays look good, but they did that.”

Point guard Duke Deen led the Braves behind the arc on Saturday, knocking down 7 of his 10 deep balls, continuing a hot stretch where he’s averaged 22 points in Bradley’s last three games. His final trey of the afternoon elicited what’s become a signature celebration of sorts for Deen: sticking his tongue out with a menacing smile on his face, similar to a snake that knows it's about to attack.

His new nickname? “The Viper.”

“It was great, we know we [literally] all can shoot the ball,” Deen said. “We know we're a great 3-point shooting team and a great shooting team overall. I feel like we just got to keep staying in the gym.”

First-half runs set tone

The game of runs took place behind the 3-point line right away, with the first four of Bradley’s baskets coming from behind the arc. It wasn’t enough, at least for the time being, as Belmont’s Malik Dia came out of the gates firing with nine points in the first three minutes.

That didn’t sit well with the Braves.

“They're gonna find ways to score so we just tried to lock in and make sure nobody else had a lot of 3s, like the role players,” Deen said.

The Braves continued emphasis on playing well out of timeouts worked to perfection, as Leons and Deen nailed back-to-back triples to put Bradley up 14-12 early. Two straight scores from recently emerging forward Kyle Thomas, a 3-pointer from Leons, and a steal leading to a 3-point play from Darius Hannah all of a sudden gave the Braves a 16-0 run to put them up 24-12.

Bradley started the game making 9 of its first 13 field goals and finished the day with a 61 percent mark from the field. When asked if it was the best game the Braves had played all year, Wardle emphasized that they were halfway there.

“No, defensively, our numbers were not very good so you gotta put it in on both ends to have a great game, in my opinion,” Wardle said. “Offensively, we were clicking, shot great, the ball was moving ... So offensively, maybe.”

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The momentum continued to seesaw when Bruins forward Cade Tyson completed a 3-point play to reduce Bradley’s advantage to 35-34 with 4:44 left in the first half. It capped off a 7-0 Belmont run that was part of a larger 18-6 scoring stretch.

The Braves, however, sent themselves into the locker room with yet another run, a 9-point spurt that featured one of Deen’s many 3-balls that got the crowd on its feet. Deen believed that if they could ramp up the defensive intensity, they could put the visitors away early in the second half.

“It was not getting back in transition, being kind of relaxed on the defensive end, which we can't do,” Deen said. “Going down the stretch, just keeping our foot on their necks would take away that run.”

Piling on 3’s in front of thousands

Pressuring Belmont (11-8, 4-4) is exactly what the Braves did out of the locker room, as baskets from Hannah, Deen and one of Leons’ season-high five 3-pointers gave Bradley a 16-0 run that spanned across halves and put them up 51-34 early in the second.

The Braves defense forced Belmont into seven straight missed shots and six turnovers, amounting to a drought that lasted over seven and a half minutes before an and-1 from Tyson.

“The best way to build a run is to get stops,” Bradley guard Christian Davis said. “They’re a very good offensive team, and you don't want to get into a shootout with him because it just leaves too much up to chance.”

A trey from Belmont’s Jayce Willingham cut the Bradley lead to 52-40, but that was the closest the Bruins wgot the rest of the way. Davis scored eight of his 14 points in just over 3 minutes to knock the Bruins out.

A circus of 3-pointers followed for the Braves, with two each from Leons and Deen and one from forward Almar Atlason. Already holding a comfortable lead, the Braves put on a three-part act with triples from Atlason, Deen and Leons to close the curtain in front of a season-high audience of 6,521.

“We have the best crowd in the Valley, bar none,” Davis said. “We're gonna show up for them if they're gonna keep showing out for us. We just appreciate them for supporting us.”

Bradley finished with 21 assists on 36 field goals, led by seven from Deen and three from Leons and guard Demarion Burch. The latter was part of a strong bench contribution for Bradley that combined for 25 points. Leons and guard Connor Hickman were among the Braves’ leading scorers with 17 and 13, respectively.

“We can get back to the drawing board on Monday and really clean some things up," Wardle said, "but offensively, it was it was good to see the unselfishness."

Why Saturday’s win was important

Despite Bradley’s shooting showcase, Belmont shot the ball nicely too, shooting 48 percent from the floor, 45 percent from the 3-point line and making 11 threes. Tyson led the Bruins with 23 points and eight rebounds and Dia chipped in 20.

The Bruins were playing their fifth straight game without sharpshooter Ja’Kobi Gillespie (16.2 ppg) and continued a three-game slide. Saturday’s game was the lone contest of the regular season between Bradley and Belmont, but the Braves could see them later in the year.

“You know, they're good offensive team, [when] they get [Ja’Kobi] Gillespie back, they're gonna be even better,” Wardle said. “So we'll probably run into them at Arch Madness, for sure.”

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Saturday’s win was important for the Braves, as it signified a type of win they’d like to have on their resumé come time for the NCAA Tournament. Wardle believes Bradley’s two losses to Belmont last year by a combined five points kept them out of the Big Dance.

“We had opportunities to win and we didn't and it probably cost us an at-large bid and to be honest, if we could have won those two games, we're probably in [the NCAA Tournament], even though we lost on Sunday in the title game,” Wardle said. “So you remember that, you want to learn from that, you want to have a little chip on the shoulder and have that little extra motivation.”

As Bradley’s win streak continues to grow ahead of another big game at home against Murray State, who the Braves lost to 79-72 on Nov. 29, they’ve found out what will win games and what won’t. But even after an offensive showcase for the ages, they still feel like they haven’t hit their ceiling.

And that’s the scary part.

“Limiting runs has been big, taking care of the basketball has been big, we've shot the ball better from the free throw line so there's a lot of positives to things that we're doing but you know, there's always room for improvement,” Wardle said.

Bravely speaking

Former Braves baseball standout Mike Tauchman was inducted into the Bradley Athletics Hall of Fame in a halftime ceremony…Tauchman recently signed a one-year deal with the Chicago Cubs, becoming the first Bradley baseball alumnus to play for the Northsiders. … Bradley’s 95 points were the most since beating Lewis University 95-62 on Dec. 7, 2020. … The last time that Bradley scored 95 or more against a Division I opponent was a 96-67 win over Indiana State on Feb. 9, 2019. ... Bradley's 18 3-pointers are its most against a Missouri Valley opponent and second all-time in program history. BU hit 20 3-pointers in a 2006 game against Florida A&M.

This article originally appeared on Journal Star: Bradley Braves basketball defeats Belmont as win streak hits eight