Tramique Sutherland connected on a pair of free throws with two seconds left in overtime to lift his 10th-seeded Bradley Braves over the seventh-seeded Drake Bulldogs, 52-50, in the first round of the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament at Scottrade Center.
Auston Barnes scored 13 points and grabbed five rebounds, and Nate Wells chipped in with 10 points and four blocked shots for Bradley (9-23), which advances to the quarterfinal round of the tournament to face second-seeded Northern Iowa on Friday. Sutherland and Josh Cunningham each added nine points in the win.
Jacob Enevold tallied a double-double with 24 points and 12 rebounds, also adding in four blocks to pace Drake (9-22), which lost its third straight game to end its season. Gary Ricks contributed 10 points, and Karl Madison dished out six assists in the loss.
Bradley hit just 30.8 percent of its first-half field goal tries with a 3- of-11 mark from 3-point range, but the Braves still took a 21-17 lead into the intermission after Drake made 38.1 percent from the field with a 1-of-6 mark from distance.
The Bulldogs improved to 41.2 percent shooting in the second half, and made all 10 of their free-throw attempts to pull even with the Braves at the end of regulation. Bradley made 39.1 percent shooting in the period.
A single Drake free throw by Trevor Berkeley with 16 seconds left knotted the game at 50-50 in the extra session, but Sutherland converted his free throws with two seconds remaining to give the Braves the win.
Bradley outscored Drake from beyond the arc, 18-9, and held a slight 10-6 advantage in points off turnovers in the win.
[SportsNetwork.com]
