Bradley Braves (13-6, 6-2 MVC) at Illinois State Redbirds (12-6, 4-3 MVC)
Normal, Illinois; Saturday, 2 p.m. EST
BOTTOM LINE: Bradley faces Illinois State after Jaquan Johnson scored 35 points in Bradley’s 94-90 overtime win against the Evansville Purple Aces.
The Redbirds have gone 7-1 at home. Illinois State is 1-0 in one-possession games.
The Braves are 6-2 against conference opponents. Bradley scores 79.1 points while outscoring opponents by 6.9 points per game.
Illinois State makes 48.2% of its shots from the field this season, which is 4.3 percentage points higher than Bradley has allowed to its opponents (43.9%). Bradley averages 8.8 made 3-pointers per game this season, 2.1 more made shots on average than the 6.7 per game Illinois State gives up.
The matchup Saturday is the first meeting of the season for the two teams in conference play.
TOP PERFORMERS: Boden Skunberg averages 1.7 made 3-pointers per game for the Redbirds, scoring 9.8 points while shooting 40.0% from beyond the arc. Chase Walker is averaging 13.8 points and 5.5 rebounds over the last 10 games.
Johnson is shooting 45.9% and averaging 17.9 points for the Braves. Alex Huibregtse is averaging 11.6 points over the last 10 games.
LAST 10 GAMES: Redbirds: 6-4, averaging 78.7 points, 32.5 rebounds, 14.8 assists, 6.9 steals and 1.8 blocks per game while shooting 49.4% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 68.4 points per game.
Braves: 8-2, averaging 83.3 points, 35.8 rebounds, 13.5 assists, 8.1 steals and 3.6 blocks per game while shooting 44.4% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 74.3 points.
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The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.
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