Bradley equaled its best Missouri Valley Conference start since 1996 Saturday night at 3-0, rallying to a 63-57 victory over Missouri State in front of 7,464 at the new John Q. Hammons Arena.
The Braves (9-5, 3-0) let a 13-point first-half lead melt away in the second half as the Bears pulled ahead 54-51 on two Wade Knapp free throws at 6:02.
The 15-6 MSU burst was aided by three free throws off technical fouls by BU coach Jim Les and BU senior Sam Singh.
But the Braves were able to quickly regroup and capture their fourth win in a row.
Chris Roberts, who led BU with a career-high 22 points, bagged a 3-pointer from the top of the key to tie it 54-54 at 3:55.
Theron Wilson then became the Braves' offense, driving to the basket and drawing fouls on three consecutive possessions. He made 6 of 7 at the line as Bradley scored 12 of the game's final 15 points.
'Theron really stepped up being a senior leader,' BU guard Sam Maniscalco said. 'After Sam's technical, Theron huddled us up and said some things I'm not going to repeat here that settled us down and gave us confidence that we were going to pull out a win.'
All nine Braves who played scored. But it was the defense that won the day.
The Bears shot just .297 from the floor, the first time a Bradley opponent has been under 30 percent in three years.
Much of that offensive struggle by the home team came in the first half as the Bears shot 25 percent (8-for-32). They made just 2 of their first 18 shots, but snatched a dozen of those misses, scoring 14 of their 24 first-half points on second chances.
'There were some loose balls and second-chance efforts that kept them in the game,' BU coach Jim Les said. 'Our defense created some awkward shots. That almost was an advantage to the offense because rebounds were ricocheting in a lot of different directions and they were coming up with a lot of those.'
Missouri State (7-7, 0-3) trailed 33-20 with 1:18 left in the first half after a tip-in and a pair of free throws by BU freshman Taylor Brown.
But the Bears scored the final four points of the half — the last two on a last-second disputed goal-tending call on Brown — and opened the second half with a 13-6 spurt to pull within 39-37.
'In the first half, they did a good job of getting us to turn the ball over,' MSU coach Cuonzo Martin said. 'Then in the second half, we did a good job of taking them out of their sets.'
The lead swayed back and forth as Roberts, who was outstanding defensively with three blocks and a dozen deflections, continued to carry the Bradley offense.
'When Chris is that active defensively, it turns into a good confidence for him about his overall game,' Les said.
Roberts' dunk at 7:07 gave Bradley a 51-48 lead, preceded a seemingly huge swing back to the Bears when Singh was whistled for his fourth foul.
Singh responded to Brad Gaston's call with a profanity and Gaston promptly hung a technical foul — and fifth personal — on the BU senior playing in the final game near his hometown of Ozark.
The Bears sank all four free throws and then two more 43 seconds later for their 54-51 edge.
Despite three consecutive turnovers, Bradley was able to regain its composure for the stretch run beginning with Roberts' game-tying trey.
Another late key was a 1-3-1 zone BU employed, causing the Bears to come up empty in four straight possessions.
'We got a little hesitant against the zone for a couple of minutes,' MSU guard Spencer Laurie said. 'We were prepared for it. We just weren't aggressive enough with it.'
The aggressors in those final minutes were wearing red as Les captured his first win in this town in seven tries.
'I give these young guys a lot of credit for gutting themselves a victory,' Les said. 'There were a lot of times they could have hung their head. I'm proud of their resiliency. That's twice on the road they've shown tremendous character to not fold. That's a tremendous sign.'
It also sets up a big matchup Tuesday night in Peoria when the two 3-0 first-place teams in the league — Interstate 74 rivals Bradley and Illinois State — square off at Carver Arena.
Dave Reynolds can be reached at 686-3210 or dreynolds@pjstar.com.
