Peoria Standard

Bradley flexes its muscles in win over Akron

Game Recap
Despite the negative temperatures and howling wind outside, Bradley and Akron kept the Peoria faithful entertained with an up and down contest that saw the Braves debut a new alternate jersey inspired from the 1980s. As the game got underway and the pregame festivities subsided, Bradley would make the game's first move by jumping out to a 15-2 lead eight minutes into the first-half. BU saw five different Bradley players record a field goal before Akron hit a shot from the floor. Turnovers defined the first action with Bradley forcing 8 miscues by the Akron offense and converted them into 13 points. The Zips found some momentum in the later stages of the first half off of a few big threes by Xavier Castaneda and Trendon Hankerson to pull back within 13 points at 30-17. However, they still couldn't figure out how to crack the Bradley defense down the stretch. The Braves closed out the half with a Ville Tahvanainen three pointer with just 56 seconds remaining in the half to lead 36-19. Bradley was led into the locker room by Malevy Leons and Ville Tahvanainen who both recorded three makes from behind the arc along with Rienk Mast and Darius Hannah who both collected 6 rebounds. Akron was scoring by committee in the first half with 7 players collecting points and not a single player having more than four.

In second half action, Bradley come out of the locker rooms on fire. The Braves sealed the deal early with a 10-3 run to open the first 6 minutes of play to increase the lead to 32 points at 54-22. Rienk Mast and Duke Deen were the catalysts for BU as Mast recorded his 14th career double-double with points and rebounds. This ties Mast at 19th in school history with Marcellus Sommerville, Hersey Hawkins, and Mike Davis. Duke Deen meanwhile continued his hot streak from three as the BU point man is now 11-18 from behind the arc in his last two contests after going 4-7 tonight. As the game trended towards the twilight stages, the Zips wouldn't go away as Enrique Freeman continued to scratch and claw for second chance points which helped him record yet another double-double this season with 11 rebounds and 10 points. Bradley also made life hard on Xavier Castaneda who was averaging just south of 20 PPG, Castaneda recorded 19 points but needed 16 FGA and 11 FTA to reach it. The game would close out with each team making a few 5-point runs and ended with a final score of 74-55 in favor of Bradley. When it was all said and done the Braves played their best all-around game of the season and left the Carver Arena crowd happy. This win improves Bradley to 9-4 on the season and drops Akron to 7-5. Akron will have one more tune up game against Concord before reaching MAC play.

Notable Takeaways
- Bradley took much better care of the ball tonight with only 8 team turnovers and forcing 15 errors by Akron.
- Rienk Mast continues his streak of double-digit scoring with a 15-point outing on 6-12 shooting. 
- Duke Deen stayed hot from downtown, Deen is now shooting shooting over 60% from three in his last two game at 11-18 from behind the line.
- Bradley's home court win streak continues to climb. The win streak now stands at 14 straight and features 8 straight vs MVC teams.
- BU shared the ball much better with 16 team assists which is their highest total of the season.
- Bradley had four players finish in double figures with Tahvanainen, Deen, Mast, and Montgomery.

What's Next?
The Braves will be in action next when they take on the Belmont Bruins on Dec. 28th. This is Belmont's first season in the MVC and this matchup will serve as the first ever meeting between Bradley and Belmont. This will be the fifth time this season that BU will be meeting a team for the first time. The game is scheduled for 7 p.m. from the Curb Event Center in Nashville, TN. 

Original source can be found here