By the look on Mike Williams` face Thursday night, you wouldn`t have guessed Bradley had just clinched the Missouri Valley Conference championship. But the net hanging around his neck reflected the feeling the usually taciturn center had hidden in his heart. ”I may not look as if I`m thrilled, but I really am,” Williams stressed. Evidently he has heard that his face isn`t a neon sign.
No matter. He had smiled fleetingly for the fans when he cut down the net following an 88-79 victory over tenacious Drake.
After scoring 26 points, Williams was honored with the final snip of one net, while fellow senior Jim Les got to scissor the last string at the other hoop and jump for joy.
Those two were also largely responsible for cutting down Drake to extend Bradley`s winning streak to 18 games–the longest in NCAA Division I–and push its record to 14-0 in the conference and 27-1 overall.
Bradley has two home games left in the regular season before heading into the league tournament at Tulsa. If the Braves defeat Wichita State Saturday, they will break the school record for consecutive victories they now share with the 1960-61 Bradley team.
Thursday night, however, Williams and Les were content to savor the MVC crown.
”Jim and I have talked about being able to win this league for some time, and it really feels good,” Williams said.
The pair led a second-half Bradley surge that overcame Drake`s 42-37 halftime lead. The Bulldogs had built that advantage by hitting from the perimeter against the Braves` zone defense.
When Drake (17-7, 9-4) went ahead 46-41 early in the second half, Bradley coach Dick Versace changed to a man-to-man defense. The Braves then started to move against a Bulldog team that was in foul trouble.
”We play 80 percent zone, but when we play man, we do well,” Versace said.
The intensified pressure certainly made things happen. It lit a spark that went out only with 25 seconds to go when the officials broke up a fight and ejected Les and Drake`s Michael Morgan.
Tensions first flared when Drake`s Melvin Mathis picked up his fourth foul with 14 minutes 36 seconds to play and his team winning 48-45. Bulldog coach Gary Garner began to blow his top–and the lead.
He harangued the referees until he drew a technical foul. Les succeeded on both of the ensuing free throws to give Bradley the lead at 49-48.
That was one of only six points Les scored in the second half. But added to his 14 first-half points and his ballhandling skills, it was plenty.
”We wanted to contain Les but couldn`t accomplish it,” Garner said.
”He`s a tough one to get to charge. He keeps on coming at you and lays his body on you really tough.
”In the last half, our foul trouble–we had about everybody on the team in some kind of trouble–took away our intensity on defense. And we simply couldn`t keep Bradley off the foul line.”
The Braves made 38 of 49 free throws to Drake`s 17 of 26. In the final half, Bradley hit on 25 of 30 foul shots.
Williams also helped crack open the game with his powerful moves inside. He credited passes by Les and Hersey Hawkins with getting him his 20 second-half points.
Williams scored after an offensive rebound to widen Bradley`s lead to 67-64, and he slammed home a basket on a pass from Les to make it a 5-point gap with a little more than four minutes to play. That was the end for Drake. Although Drake led most of the first half and Bradley showed more fight after intermission, Versace claimed it was not fair to classify the game that way.
”No one dominated in either half,” he insisted. ”We shot jumpers poorly from short range early and looked worse than we really were due to not rebounding. (Bradley grabbed just one offensive rebound in the first half.)
”It was a cat-and-mouse game, with both teams trying to save players who were in foul trouble for the stretch run. I was confident the foul situation would work in our favor the second half at getting the ball inside on offense again.”
Drake`s frustration boiled over at the end when it was clear there was no way to stop Bradley. A battle erupted, and Versace and Garner had to go on the court to separate their players. But in the end, it was a night for handshakes.
