PEORIA, Ill. – Dequon Miller scored a career-high 26 points for Missouri State, but the Bears were out-rebounded and out-hustled by home standing Bradley down the stretch in a 77-68 loss at Carver Arena.
Bradley (11-19, 6-11 MVC) was led by Luuk van Bree with 17 points to lead four Braves in double figures, including 12 by freshman Nate Kennell.
MSU (16-14, 7-10 MVC) led 44-38 with just under 14 minutes to go after a dunk-back by Obediah Church. But Bradley’s 14-2 run over the next five minutes took the wind out of the Bears’ sails. Bradley pushed ahead 53-46 at the 8:43 mark and held on down the stretch.
MSU would get within 55-53 at the six-minute mark on a trey by Dequon Miller that tied the program’s single-season 3-point record with the team’s 252nd. Two minutes later, the Braves were up by nine for their biggest lead of the night.
Jarrid Rhodes would help the Bears break the single-season 3-point record with the team’s eighth of the game, a shot that made it a 66-61 game at the 1:52 mark.
Von Bree then hit his third triple of the night with 1:22 to go that squashed some Bears momentum that began moments earlier on a traditional 3-point play by Alize Johnson and Rhodes’ triple.
Bradley was poised down the stretch, converting 9 of 10 at the foul line – and 13-of-18 (.722) for the game – to seal the win. BU also out-rebounded MSU 31-20, a season-low in caroms for Missouri State.
Johnson and Rhodes both finished with 13 points with Johnson leading MSU with 5 rebounds.
In the first half, the Bears overcame 10 turnovers to lead 32-30 at the intermission. Johnson’s triple deep out of the right wing was MSU’s fifth of the half and gave the visitors a two-point edge after shooting 52.4 percent from the field out of the gates.
Missouri State also bounced back from two big runs by the Braves who scored the game’s first six points to lead 6-0 from the jump. Later, with MSU up 21-18 after a trey by Ryan Kreklow, MSU went nearly five minutes without a bucket while BU reeled off eight unanswered points to lead 26-21.
But the maroon-clad squad called a timeout and tallied three buckets in the span of 90 seconds, regaining the lead on a pair of free throws by Johnson with 1:41 left in the stanza.
For the game, the Bears were 24-for-47 (.511) overall, 8-of-17 (.471) from three and 12-of-15 (.800) at the line with 17 turnovers.
Bradley was 29-for-52 (.558) from the field, 6-of-18 (.333) from bonus distance and turned the ball over just 10 times with 8 steals and 20 assists.
The Bears wrap up the regular season at JQH Arena on Saturday against No. 25 ranked Wichita State (26-4, 16-1 MVC) at 11 a.m. in a nationally-televised game on ESPN2.
