These are not the words I expected to type about Bradley’s 74-69 basketball escape Sunday night, and they likely aren’t the words you expected would describe the Braves’ first victory of the season. But here they are.
No way Bradley beats Idaho State without freshman guard Dyricus Simms-Edwards.
In a game that saw far more experienced teammates repeatedly allow themselves to be shoved around, manhandled on the boards and nearly paint-pointed to death, Simms-Edwards was tough, aggressive, fearless and productive.
Braves coach Jim Les likes to recite the admonition that it’s far more important who finishes a game than who starts it. Simms-Edwards finished this one, because he was everywhere important while it was being decided: on the boards, in the lanes, driving to the basket.
Let’s stop there for a moment.
“He goes to the basket like a man,” Les said. “He can take a hit. I think he almost seeks out contact. And he can finish.”
Bradley sorely needed someone to do those things Sunday. Finesse and 3-point shooting — even 50 percent accuracy on 22 shots from long distance — weren’t deterring Idaho State.
The superbly organized visitors answered Bradley’s perimeter-oriented game with relentless drives to the basket and offensive rebounding. The Bengals’ 42 points in the paint were almost double the average Bradley allowed from the lane last season. You couldn’t help but think, “If only Bradley could get to the rim and score like these guys.”
Then here came DSE.
On first glance, his 16 second-half minutes came mostly from the absence of Dodie Dunson, who broke both bones in his left forearm in a fall under the basket and now is gone for the season. But this was not playing time by default. DSE earned every minute and surely some for the immediate future as well.
With the Braves’ offense stagnant, Simms-Edwards scored nine points in the second half, all the result of taking the ball hard to the rim. First, he split the defense from the right elbow for a layup. Next, another drive, with a hesitation dip in the air to avoid a defender. Then he slipped underneath from the weak side and scored off a feed from Sam Singh. Then another drive, picking up a foul and converting both free throws.
Simms-Edwards made a living off this stuff at Washington High School, where he said coach Kevin Brown drilled into him to expect contact in the paint. Be strong or go home. DSE, built like a fullback at 6-feet-2, 200 pounds, wasn’t going home. He was going to the paint.
“It’s just my niche,” DSE said. “My comfort zone.”
But there’s a world of difference between high school and college ball, especially when it comes to physicality. You get bumped in high school. You get plastered in college.
Simms-Edwards smiled. He really doesn’t mind. In fact, he really likes it.
“You cant play tentative,” DSE said. “You have to have a mindset you’re going to do something.”
On both ends of the floor.
During a timeout in the final minute, with the game on the line, BU assistant coach Eric Buescher implored the Braves to get a rebound. Simms-Edwards took the charge personally. When ISU’s Roderick Gilchrest missed a jumper and a mass of bodies flew to the rebound, it was DSE who rose above others and got his hand on the ball, smacking it from the fray. Not satisfied with that, he gave chase as the ball sailed out of bounds and grabbed it while airborne.
Bradley had needed great hustle the entire game and hadn’t gotten much. This was great hustle by Simms-Edwards, but now what? The last thing you’re supposed to do in that situation is sling the ball into traffic under the opponent’s basket. But that’s exactly what DSE did.
“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” he said, knowing full well he’s likely to get an earful about that. “My instincts took over, and as I released it, I was like, ‘Oh, my goodness, I shouldn’t have done that.’ ”
But he had heard teammate Sam Maniscalco holler, and he threw the ball — albeit blind — to the sound. On the money.
“Relief,” Simms-Edwards said.
Ball safe. Game in hand.
Thank the freshman.
KIRK WESSLER is Journal Star executive sports editor/columnist. He can be reached at kwessler@pjstar.com, or 686-3216.
