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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.
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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.
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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.
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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 252
nd. Two minutes later, the Braves were up by nine for their biggest lead of the night.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Johnson and Rhodes both finished with 13 points with Johnson leading MSU with 5 rebounds.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Tickets for the WSU game may be purchased at the Old Missouri Bank Box Office at JQH Arena or by phone at (417) 836-7678. Regular-priced tickets are also available anytime at
MissouriStateBears.com.
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