A pair of mid-major programs take the floor in search of a victory on the college hardwood when a member of the Missouri Valley Conference takes on one from the Mountain West in the Beehive State. The Bradley Braves are on the road as they make the trip to take on the Utah State Aggies Friday night. Bradley opened their season with a 93-59 demolition of Wisconsin Parkside Monday night at home. Utah State opened their season with a 75-58 home win over in-state rival Utah Valley Monday night, covering the line as a nine-point favorite. These two schools have met just twice with each team winning once. They haven’t met in nearly six decades with the Braves taking a 75-69 home win in the most recent matchup back on December 17, 1964.
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Bradley had an easy time in their opener as they rolled past a Division II program in Wisconsin Parkside at home Monday night. The Braves now have to compete with an actual Division I program and one that has been pretty decent in recent years, on the road. If nothing else, it was a solid warmup for Brian Wardle’s team, who has to try and reconfigure their rotation after losing Terry Roberts in the transfer portal as he went to Georgia. Now, we’ll get a look at what this Braves team can do as they head out on the road for this contest against Utah State. Wardle’s squad was only 4-8 on the road last season and went 0-4 in neutral floor contests: this could be a good indicator as to whether the team can improve in that regard.
Against Wisconsin Parkside, Bradley used an early 12-4 run in the first half to open up an advantage and built on it as the game went on. The Braves led by just one before that 12-4 run that put them up 22-13 just over eight minutes into the game. Bradley then closed the first half on a 13-2 run to open up a 45-28 halftime advantage and didn’t let the Rangers closer than 14 the rest of the way. The Braves extended the lead to as many as 37 in the second half en route to the victory. Bradley shot a hot 56.1% from the floor, including nine of 18 from three-point range, and drained 20 of 27 free throws in the contest. Ja’Shon Henry led the Braves with 19 points in 17 minutes off the bench, hitting all seven of his shots from the floor and all five of his free throw attempts. Darius Hannah contributed 16 points plus seven rebounds, Connor Hickman added 14 points and Ville Tahvanainen chipped in 11 off the bench in the victory. The Braves are without Rienk Mast, who suffered a knee injury October 19 and is expected to miss four to eight weeks. That’s a blow to Bradley’s depth as they had to shuffle their rotation in the interim.