The Bradley Braves defeated the UIC Flames 61-60 in the final seconds of a nail-biting competition on Saturday afternoon in Chicago.
UIC’s Jordan Mason gave his second consecutive standout performance after the Flames’ victory over the then-undefeated Drake Bulldogs on New Year’s Day. The junior guard posted 15 points.
Bradley senior Zek Montgomery matched Mason’s 15 points. Duke Deen drained a 3 for the Braves’ last-second go-ahead points. Although he had the final say in Saturday’s game, Deen shot an unusually low 36.4% from behind the 3-point line.
Saša Ciani and Ahmad Henderson II heavily influenced the Flames’ scoring efforts, tallying 11 and 13 points, respectively. Henderson also put up 10 rebounds, a career-high for the sophomore.
As a team, UIC (10-6, 3-3 MVC) struggled heavily with their 3-point shooting against the Braves (14-3, 5-1 MVC), making only 2 of 23 attempts from behind the arc. Despite the 3-point struggles, UIC’s defensive efforts kept Bradley to 61 points – its lowest-scoring game so far this season.
“I want to give Bradley a lot of credit,” Flames head coach Rob Ehsan commented after Saturday’s loss. “We had a chance to close it out at the end with a lead down the stretch, but we weren’t able to do it. They just made one more play than we did.”
The Flames return to the Credit Union 1 Arena on Wednesday against Murray State (10-7, 4-2 MVC), who currently sit just one spot ahead of UIC in the Missouri Valley Conference.
