Braves Bounced at Arch Madness

 For the first time in two seasons the Bradley Braves taste defeat at Arch Madness after they were bounced Thursday by the Southern Illinois Salukis at the Enterprise Center in St. Louis, Missouri. Fresh off their big win against Drake in the season finale with only 6 scholarship players on the roster, the Braves were happy to get both Ville Tahvanainen and Kevin McAdoo back healthy for this game. When the action finally got underway, SIU's Lance Jones opened up the scoring with a 3-pointer but Bradley responded with a jump shot by Darrius Hannah to make the score 3-2 early. After both teams began exchanging baskets Rienk Mast would bury a 3-pointer to tie the game at 11 all with 15:03 left to play. Coming out of the media timeout Bradley would take its first and only lead of the first half when Ville Tahvanainen's triple found the bottom of the net to put the Braves out in front 14-11. The Salukis would quickly respond with an 11-2 run spanning the next 3 minutes to take a 22-16 lead with 10:16 remaining. Rienk Mast, who had a really big game for the Braves, would drill a triple to make it a 3 point game and a couple possessions later Sean East II would hit another 3 to make it a 28-26 ball game with 6 minutes left in the first half. SIU handled Bradley runs all game and would do it again here as Ben Harvey would get a jumper to fall in the paint and hit a 3 to quickly put Bradley back in a 7 point hole. But to the Braves credit they kept battling and after East gets a block on the defensive end and a layup on the fast break Bradley found themselves trailing by a point with a chance to take a lead into halftime. SIU would close out the first half strong though as Trent Brown hit a 3-pointer and Ben Harvey made another jump shot to give the Salukis a 38-32 halftime advantage. Dalton Banks led all first half scorers with 12 points and Sekou Dembele added 9 more points. For Bradley Sean East II lead the way with 9 points and 3 rebounds and Rienk Mast chipped in 8 points, 6 of which came from beyond the arc. The Salukis were a blistering 15-26 from the field, including 8-16 from the 3-point line in the first half, and the Braves weren't far behind going 13-29 from the field. 

SIU again opened up the scoring in the second half getting a big dunk from Kyler Filewich and a paint jumper from Dalton Banks to quickly push the lead to double digits. A Rienk Mast 3-pointer made it 46-39 with 15:02 as Bradley tried to spark a run to get back into the game. But the two teams would continue to trade baskets and after Kyler Filewich made a jumper in the paint SIU went into the media timeout ahead 54-45. Out of the timeout the Salukis twice pushed their lead to the biggest of the game at 13, first with a Steven Verplancken jumper and then with a Anthony D'Avanzo layup to make it 60-47. Rienk Mast would continue to try and keep Bradley in the game with another 3-pointer to cut the deficit back to 10 but the Braves were unable to get the lead under double digits until late in the second half. With 6:31 left in the game Mast scored another basket for Bradley to make it 62-52 but despite stops on the defensive end of the floor the Braves were unable to string together baskets to make a dent in the lead. After a two minute scoring drought Bradley would get two quick baskets from Freshman Connor Linke and transfer Sean East II to make it 62-56 with just over 3 minutes left to play in the ballgame. Sean East would continue to put the pressure on SIU when he hit a huge 3-pointer to put the Braves down only 5 with two minutes still left on the clock. But just like they did in the first half down the stretch SIU would finish strong and close the game out on a 9-4 run to put an end to Bradley's season. The Salukis would go an important 7 for 8 at the foul line and when you don't leave points at the line late in games it is hard for teams to cut into deficits. The final score in this one would be 73-63 as SIU advances to the second round of the MVC Tournament where they will face the #1 seed Loyola-Chicago Ramblers. Ben Harvey had a huge day for the Salukis pouring in 24 points to go along with 5 rebounds. Rienk Mast lead the way for Bradley posting his second career double-double with 24 points and 10 rebounds and Sean East contributed 16 points and 4 assists.