PEORIA, Ill. – Little Rock once again fell behind early and had no answers for a hot-shooting Bradley team, falling to the Braves 86-46 Wednesday evening at Carver Arena. The Trojans fall to 2-8 on the year while the Braves improve to 8-2.
Little Rock again had a hard time finding its scoring touch, hitting just 16 of its 45 shots on the night (35.6 percent), but did have one bright spot in that it made a season-best nine three-pointers, converting on 36 percent of its attempts.
Seven of those nine threes were made by the freshman guard duo of
Cameron Corcoran and
Jaizec Lottie as the two led the Trojans with 14 and 12 points, respectively. Corcoran notched his career-high 14 points on 4-of-5 shooting from beyond the arc while converting two of his three free throw attempts. Lottie was good on three of his five three-pointers and was 4-of-7 for the game with a team-high three assists.
No other Trojan scored more than five points, however, as
Anthony Black and
Wadly Mompremier both contributed the handful, as Mompremier added five rebounds to his performance.
Oliver Black finished with four points and a team-best six rebounds.
Little Rock committed 20 turnovers, compared to just 10 for Bradley, leading to a 26-14 edge for the Braves in points off turnovers. For the second game in a row, the Trojans were outscored in the paint as Bradley dominated inside, outscoring Little Rock 28-12 on the night.
Knowing it would need a fast start against a physical team, Little Rock matched Bradley early on, trailing 8-7 with just under 16 minutes remaining in the first half. But the Trojans once again fell victim to an extended scoring drought, watching the Braves use a 13-0 run over the next seven minutes to build a 21-7 advantage just past the midway point of the opening half.
Corcoran looked to give the Trojans a spark on offense, hitting back-to-back threes to pull Little Rock within 10 at 21-13 at the 8:21 mark. But the notorious cold shooting struck the Trojans once again, making just one basket over the next six minutes as Bradley pushed its lead to as many as 25, leading 46-21 at the intermission off a three at the buzzer.
The situation didn't get any better for Little Rock in the second half as Bradley continued to extend its lead, pushing the advantage to as many as 43 at 79-36 with just under five minutes to go.
The loss drops Little Rock to 1-1 all-time against Bradley as the Trojans remain winless on the road this year at 0-5. Little Rock is now 3-10 all-time in program history in games played in the state of Illinois as the margin of defeat was the most for the Trojans since an 88-41 loss to Oklahoma State in 1998.
Little Rock will get another chance at its first road win of the season on Friday, traveling from Illinois to Texas for a meeting with Sam Houston State in Huntsville. Tip against the Bearkats is set for 6:30 p.m. from Bernard G. Johnson Coliseum.
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