They don’t call it “The War on I-74” anymore, but Saturday’s Bradley-Illinois State game was no less intense than it has been for 100 years.
Buoyed by the first sellout in seven years at Redbird Arena, ISU solidified its third-place standing in the Missouri Valley Conference with a 69-62 victory over the Braves.
Senior guards Trey Guidry and Vince Greene led the Redbirds with 24 and 20 points, respectively. Many of the 10,200 stormed the court after time ran out to celebrate a victory in what many call the best rivalry in Illinois.
“That was a great atmosphere for us,” Guidry said. “I don’t know if we could have pulled it off without them. You get goose bumps out there when the fans are like that.”
The first game in the series was played 100 years and one day from Saturday, with Illinois Normal posting a 39-13 victory over Bradley Polytechnic in Normal. The two teams have played 99 games, with Bradley holding a 54-45 edge. They play game No. 100 Feb. 23 in Peoria.
Bradley, which starts three freshmen, a junior-college transfer and junior standout Marcellus Sommerville (23 points), led by as many as 12 points in the first half and led 30-27 at the break.
The Braves (11-9, 4-8) fell behind early in the second half and were down 56-48 with 6 minutes 16 seconds left after a pair of Greene free throws on a technical and a Greene basket.
Still, Bradley fought back to within 58-57 with 3:29 left on a layup by freshman Jeremy Crouch. Greene and Guidry combined to make nine free throws the rest of the way to keep Illinois State (16-6, 8-4) in control.
Greene, who came into the game shooting 91 percent from the foul line, made all eight of his chances while Guidry, who shoots 79 percent, was 7 of 9.
“It’s an absolute luxury to have a free-throw shooter like Vince Greene,” said ISU coach Porter Moser, who also received eight big points off the bench from Proviso East 7-footer Ronnie Carlwell. “It’s no secret we’ve struggled from the foul line all year, but not him, especially at the end of the game. He wants the ball at the end of the game.”
Bradley was off to its best start in 10 years after 14 games with a 10-4 record. Since a win over Northern Iowa on Jan. 22, the Braves have lost four straight. They have lost seven of their last nine, but coach Jim Les still liked a lot of what he saw.
“They played with great energy the whole game,” he said. “We weren’t always perfect, but I told them I don’t expect them to be perfect. If they stay after it … a couple balls bounce a different way and a couple of shots go in and the outcome is a little different. I told them they have nothing to hang their heads about.”
Moser loved the atmosphere Saturday, but loved the victory even more.
“As much as this rivalry is awesome, healthy and so many other things, we still have to talk about and get excited about the conference race,” said Moser, whose team trails Wichita State and Southern Illinois in the MVC. “That was win No. 8 for this group.”
