What a wild ride for Bradley. It's like the teams switched jerseys at the half, as UAB came out of the half a completely different team. Bradley completely lost a 16 point halftime lead in 10 minutes, and actually got down 11 points with 6 minutes left. Duke Deen drew a foul on a 3 pointer, and made all 3 free throws. Then Bradley forced a turnover with a press that led to a Connor Hickman 3, and all of a sudden it was a 5 point game again, and Bradley was back in it.
Once Bradley quick turning the ball over and giving up easy transition baskets, it became much harder for UAB to score. Malevy was great on both ends all night. Duke hit multiple big shots. Darius Hannah looked really good as well, including making a beautiful running floater/lay-in off a screen and roll with 2.8 seconds left that was the game winner.
Bradley will need another guard to get up to speed to challenge for the Valley title, but they should solidly be in the top 4 again this year barring injuries. We are very thin at Guard right now, especially since the transfer from Nevada, Pettigrew, is no longer with the team.