How the Bradley Braves were unequaled in their big Valley win over rival Illinois State

NORMAL — Rienk Mast and Malevy Leons were equal to the task Wednesday as the Bradley Braves demolished Illinois State in a rivalry rematch.

Literally, the Netherlands natives — Bradley's Flying Dutchmen — combined for 21 points in the first half, matching the entire Redbirds team total. The tandem led a confident, dominating Bradley bunch to a 79-61 victory before 5,374 at CEFCU Arena, the fifth straight win for the Braves.

That, coupled with an upset of Belmont by Missouri State, left Bradley in a three-way tie for the Missouri Valley Conference lead with Southern Illinois and Drake.

Box score: Bradley 79, Illinois State 61 | Preview: BU at ISU | Standings: MVC

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"Obviously, Malevy and Rienk did what Malevy and Rienk do," Bradley coach Brian Wardle said. "But it was a great overall team effort. It's huge to start fast on the road. I thought our defense really ignited us. We kept guarding and then the 3s started going in.

"I love seeing our points in the paint, 45 points, that's a lot. That's the beauty of our team, we're confident from the 3-point line and from going inside and playing inside-out. Malevy was a problem (for ISU) off the dribble today, he really attacked closeouts better because he's shooting 3s."

Leons staked the Braves to a 5-0 start when he put down a layup and-1 42 seconds after the tip, then on the next trip took a feed from Mast for another layup.

Illinois State missed its first three shots and then turned it over on its fourth possession with an offensive foul.

The Braves extended their lead to 7-0 at the other end on a hook from Mast at 17:23.

Connor Hickman's bucket followed the first media break, and made it 9-0. Illinois State, meanwhile, was at 0 of 4 from the field and four turnovers in the games first six minutes.

Thanks for coming.

"We knew from the last game that they could be scary if they get going, so we wanted to start out strong and really intent on getting that lead and staying on it," said Mast, referring to an ISU team that took Bradley to overtime in Peoria on Jan. 25. "100% that OT game was a warning for us. We knew it was going to be a dogfight today. But we were ready to go."

Mast notched his seventh double-double of the season with 16 points and 10 rebounds. Leons poured in a game-high 21 points and added four rebounds, a steal and two blocked shots.

Illinois State fouled Leons seven times in an effort to defend the undefendable.

"I have some size," Leons said. "When I play those small forwards, I look at my defender and he's 6-4 and I think 'Oh, I have a lot of length on him and it's going to be easy to score over him.' "

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Keeping the pressure on

The Redbirds finally scored on a pair of free throws by Malachi Poindexter with 13:46 left in the first half.

ISU missed six layups in the half.

"That can kind of get to you," first-year ISU coach Ryan Pedon said. "(Bradley's) defense in the first 10 minutes was as good a half-court defense as we've gone against this year.

"We just played two teams (Belmont and Bradley) that are at the top of our league for a reason … they are the top two teams in the league at this moment."

The Braves stretched their lead to 27-14 when point guard Duke Deen hit his first 3, picked off a pass at the other end, and sent an alley-oop pass to Leons for a layin and-1 with 5:45 left.

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Leons stayed hot, driving in from the left wing for a layup and-1 to give the Braves a 30-13 lead with 4:53 left in the half. Ville Tahvanainen hit his second 3 of the game off the bench to give BU a 39-21 lead with 40 seconds left in the half. The Braves turned over ISU and set up a driving layup by Connor Hickman at the buzzer to take a 41-21 lead to halftime.

"Good movement, good looks, ball was really popping," Wardle said. "I thought we closed out the half really strong. Give Illinois State credit they never stopped fighting."

Bradley's lead grew to 25 points in the second half.

"We started off extremely slow, and really, it's OK that we missed some shots," ISU guard Malachi Poindexter said. "Our defense just wasn't great … they went up 7-0 very quickly."

A new streak

Bradley has won five straight games in the Valley, and four in a row on the road. The road was a concern for the team earlier in the season. But these Braves are born-again tough on any court.

"In this league, when you're on the road, the home team can get hot," Mast said. "You have to focus on the 40 minutes. It's good being up but we know we have to stay aggressive.

"The difference for us now on the road? Confidence. We know what we can do on the road and what we need to do. We know if everyone shows up and does their thing … it gives us a lot of confidence."

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The bottom line

The Braves opened leads as big as 25 points in the second half, as their bench gave them 27 points.

Tahvanainen was 3 of 7 from 3-point range, the first time in eight games he's made at least three 3s. He finished with 13 points, the third-highest total for the guard this season.

Bradley point guard Deen had a hard time gaining traction in the game, producing three points, four assists before fouling out after 17 minutes of court time.

Zek Montgomery nailed a step-back 3 from above the arc with a defender in his face in the second half.

Big forward Darius Hannah had a pair of dunks, including a highlight-reel monster in the final seconds off a steal.

"We wanted to start out with urgency, we knew this was a big game for us," Leons said. "Just give it all right from the gate. We just got to focus on ourselves."

On the record

Both Wardle and Pedon were asked after the game for reactions to LeBron James breaking Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s career NBA scoring record on Tuesday night.

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• Wardle: "LeBron is an unbelievable talent. I never thought I would be alive to see someone pass Kareem. I watched Kareem in the later stages of his career, then I saw Jordan and Kobe. I've been blessed in my lifetime as a basketball junkie … to see that. I remember thinking, 'There's no way anyone is passing Kareem' because I thought that number was pretty untouchable. LeBron is up there as one of the greatest and it was pretty cool as a basketball fan to see it."

• Pedon: "Happy to see LeBron break the record. Very rarely, within a lifetime — at least within my lifetime — do you get to see that record broken. And to see it start to finish in our generation. I can remember where I was when he got drafted. Where I was when the Cavs got the ping-pong ball. I remember watching his first game. And I was watching last night. I have a lot of respect for LeBron and how he handles himself."

In the huddle

• Illinois State coach Ryan Pedon, on what he sees in Bradley's first-place team: "I want to give credit to our rivals. They played sensational tonight. They have been playing much better and some of the things I saw on film in their Northern Iowa game played itself out here tonight. They were up double digits in Northern Iowa, a very difficult place to play, and they were humming. They came in here and did the same thing tonight."

• Bradley coach Brian Wardle: "I'm excited about our depth up front. (7-foot-1 center) Ahmet Jonovic is ready to play now, ready right now, but we just can't get him in."

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• Wardle, on Bradley's OT win over ISU on Jan. 25 in which they were out-rebounded by the Redbirds by 19 boards: "We had two days of practices blocking out because we lost some long rebounds to them (in the OT game). We were aware of it. We still have to put together a 40-minute game, because you'll have to do that to win in the Valley tournament."

• Bradley forward Malevy Leons: "It's always a dogfight (against ISU), every game, doesn't matter what the standings say. If we face them in Arch Madness we'll have to be ready again."

Bravely Speaking

Bradley improved to 18-8 overall, 11-4 in the Valley. Illinois State slipped to 10-16 (5-10). … Connor Hickman played a game-high 34:45. … Illinois State got 15 points from Malachi Poindexter, 12 from Darius Burford and 11 from Kendall Lewis. Lewis and Knight combined for 35 points on 13-of-19 shooting against Bradley in the Jan. 25 OT game in Peoria. … Burford played with a mask on to protect a broken orbital bone, an injury suffered in practice. … The Braves have not won the regular-season MVC title since going 15-3 in conference play under Jim Molinari in the 1995-96 season. … Bradley forward Ja'Shon Henry had eight points to up his career total to 963 career points as he pushes to become the 51st player in Bradley history to reach 1,000 career points. … The Braves come home 1 p.m. Saturday to host Murray State.

Dave Eminian is the Journal Star sports columnist, and covers Bradley men's basketball, the Rivermen and Chiefs. He writes the Cleve In The Eve sports column for pjstar.com. He can be reached at 686-3206 or deminian@pjstar.com. Follow him on Twitter @icetimecleve.

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FINAL: Bradley 79, Illinois State 61

Braves closing

8:40 pm.: The clock is on the Braves' side, as Ja'Shon Henry powered to the rim and scored to set up an and-1, BU had a 70-51 lead with 3:33 left.

Coming out on the other side of the media break, Duke Deen fouls out with 3:21 left.

Fouls mounting for Braves

8:30 p.m.: Malevy Leons whistled for his fourth foul. Leons and Duke Deen on the bench with four fouls and 7:13 left here. Bradley lead 64-47 and ISU at the line shooting and-1.

Illinois State makes a run

8:28 p.m.: Illinois State cuts BU lead down to 62-45 on a 3 from Darius Burford, a turnover from Rienk Mast, and a pull-up jumper from Burford with 7:49 left.

Bradley has 8 3-pointers

8:18 p.m.: Zek Montgomery joins the party with a step-back, in-your-face 3 from above the key to give BU a 60-35 lead with 12:36 left.

BU guard Duke Deen hit with his fourth foul and sits down with 11:31 left in the game.

Leons is dominating

8:08 p.m.: Bradley forward Malevy Leons continues to hurt the Redbirds.

Leons powered to the rim, layup and-1 at 1:47 into second half. Makes it for 44-23.

Then Leons rolled to the rim for a layup and 50-30 lead as the break arrived at 15:46.

He has game-high 16 points.

HALFTIME: Bradley 41, Illinois State 21

7:47 p.m.: Bradley has 11 points from Malevy Leons and 10 from Rienk Mast -- combined, that matches Illinois State's entire team total for the half.

Mast has 7 rebounds and the Braves have a 19-13 edge on the boards.

Bradley made 6 of 14 from 3-point range, and shot 51.6% from the field. ISU shot 32% from the field (8 of 25) and got five points each from Malachi Poindexter and Seneca Knight.

The Redbirds had 8 turnovers, feeding a 14-5 Bradley lead in points off turnovers.

BU finishes strong

7:41 p.m.: Ville Tahvanainen hit his second 3 of the game off the bench to give BU a 39-21 lead with 40 seconds left in the half.

The Braves then turned over ISU and set up a driving layup by Connor Hickman at the buzzer to take a 41-21 lead to halftime.

Leons hot hand

7:38 p.m.: The Braves stretched their lead to 27-14 when Duke Deen hit his first 3, picked off a pass at the other end, and sent an alley-oop pass to Leons for a layin and-1 with 5:45 left.

Leons stayed hot, driving in from the left wing for a layup and-1 to give the Braves a 30-13 lead with 4:53 left in the half.

Leons hit the under-4 media break with a game-high 11 points.

Bradley 21, ISU 10

7:27 p.m.: Montgomery hit a corner 3 off an ISU turnover for 15-2. ISU: 0 of 8 with 5 turnovers.

The Redbirds finally scored from the field on a layup by Darius Burford to close within 15-4 at 10:35.

Mast hit another 3, then Ville Tahvanainen with a pull-up 3 and Bradley headed to the under-8 break with a 21-10 lead.

Mast with 8 points and five rebounds, still 8 minutes left in the half. Bradley has warmed up to 4 of 10 from 3-point range.

Bradley 12, ISU 2

7:19 p.m.: Connor Hickman's bucket off the break made it 9-0. Illinois State, meanwhile was at 0 of 4 from the field and four turnovers in the games first six minutes.

The Redbirds finally got on the board with a pair of free throws from Malachi Poindexter at 13:46.Mast responded with a 3 from the right wing for 12-2.

The Braves went to the under-12 media break with that 12-2 lead, while Illinois State was mired in 0 of 7 shooting from the field and four turnovers.

Bradley also had four turnovers and a 1 of 5 start from 3-point range to limit its lead to 10.

Braves start fast

7:09 p.m.: Malevy Leons staked the Braves to a 5-0 start when he put down a layup and-1 42 seconds after the tip, then on the next trip took a feed from Rienk Mast for another layup and 5-0 edge.

Illinois State missed its first three shots and then turned it over on its fourth possession with an offensive foul.

The Braves extended their lead to 7-0 at the other end on a hook from Mast at 17:23.

Bradley had a chance to extend it further, with three offensive rebounds to extend its possession, but missed from deep all three times and headed to the first media break up 7-0.

Starting lineups

6:54 p.m.: Bradley ready to go with guards Duke Deen and Connor Hickman, forward Malevy Leons, wing Zek Montgomery and center Rienk Mast.

Illinois State opening with guards Luke Kasubke, Malachi Poindexter and Seneca Knight, plus forwards Kendall Lewis and Liam McChesney.

This article originally appeared on Journal Star: Bradley basketball: Braves unrivaled in their win over Illinois State