Bradley and UNI meet for MVC Men's opener
The Bradley Braves will welcome the Northern Iowa Panthers to Carver Arena for the 2022-23 Missouri Valley Conference season opener.
Scouting Northern Iowa
The Northern Iowa Panthers are led by shooting-guard Bowen Born. Born is averaging 20 points per game and just under 3 assists and 3 rebounds per game. Born is coming off a huge 30 point outing in a win against Northern Illinois. The win vs NIU gave the Panther's their second win of the season after defeating Wartburg College in the seasons opening week and snapped a three game losing streak. In the low-post Bradley will have to find a way to slow down Tytan Anderson. The UNI forward is the MVC's leading rebounder, hauling in roughly 10 rebounds per game. Ben Jacobson is the head coach for the Panthers in his 17th season at the helm and has 4 MVC Regular Season titles and 4 MVC Tournament titles. UNI leads the all-time series 36-34. Bradley defeated UNI in last season's Valley home opener 71-69.
Scouting the Braves
The Braves are coming fresh off a massive 40+ point win over Merrimack College in Carver Arena. Rienk Mast returned to the Bradley starting-five after playing on a minutes restriction which saw him collect 12 points and 6 rebounds in 17 minutes of work. Malevy Leons also had his biggest game as a Brave with his second straight double-double after recording 17 points and 10 rebounds against Liberty and a career 32 points on 11 made shots and 10 rebounds against Merrimack. Bradley held the Warriors to just 21% from the field and gathered 50 team rebounds for the first time this season. Bradley also owns an 11-game win streak in Carver Arena with 7 of those wins coming against Valley teams. Bradley has also had 21 of it's 34 wins in the series come at home.
Milestone Watch
Malevy Leons will be looking for his 3 straight double-doubles, previously only two other Braves had a shot at this milestone in the Brian Wardle era. Both Donte Thomas and Elijah Childs both recording back-to-back double-double performances in their careers. Darius Hannah is currently trying to keep pace for Bradley's single season blocked shots record which currently sits at 79. Hannah with 14 blocks on the season needs to average 2.6 blocks per game to tie the single season record and needs 2.2 to jump into the top five. Leons trails only Hannah for the team lead with 12 blocks on the season.
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