Evansville Aces (10-5) vs. Bradley Braves (10-5)
January 10, 2024 8:00 pm EDT
The Line: Bradley Braves -11.5 ; Over/Under: 143.5
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The Evansville Purple Aces and the Bradley Braves meet Wednesday in college basketball action from Carver Arena. Evansville has lost three straight at 10-5 overall, most recently falling to Murray State. As for Bradley, they’ve won four straight at 10-5 as well. The Braves beat Missouri State on Saturday. Let’s get into our Evansville vs. Bradley prediction. Check back all season long for free college basketball picks at Sports Chat Place.
Evansville Purple Aces
The Aces managed a nice 10-2 run over their first dozen games this year. The wins came versus Miami-OH, Health Sciences & Pharmacy, Southeast Missouri State (twice), Ball State, Chattanooga, Northern Iowa, Bellarmine, TN-Martin and Tennessee Tech. Since then it’s been losses to Cincinnati, Indiana State and Murray State, though.
In the Murray State matchup back on Saturday, the Aces were down by 11 at the break. Evansville faded even further on a 50-39 second half and lost significantly 81-59. Kenny Strawbridge and Gage Bobe (bench) each scored a team-high 12 points with a combined three assists.
Bradley Braves
Over on the Braves’ side, they opened the year with six straight victories. Bradley hit the skids with losses to Murray State, Indiana State, Akron, Cleveland State and Duquesne in the next five outings, then beat SIU Edwardsville, Truman State, Valparaiso and Missouri State in the next four.
Matched up against Missouri State over the weekend, Bradley jumped out to a dominant 42-28 edge by halftime. The Braves cruised from there on a 44-32 second-half run and won it 86-60. Tops in scoring was Connor Hickman with 25 points, six rebounds and two assists in the victory effort.
ANDREW’S FREE EVANSVILLE VS BRADLEY PREDICTION
I’ll stay with Bradley here. You could probably make a case either way, though; this will be a very interesting matchup. The Braves had no issues with a middling Missouri State team in their last game, hitting a nice 54.7 percent from the field with 41 rebounds. The 16 turnovers didn’t help, but it was a win all the same. Bradley has been scoring great lately with 69 or more points in all four of their latest wins.
As for Evansville, they’re in need of a spark to turn things around so this will be a very important game. The Aces looked flat against Murray State though, and they’ve now failed to hit 60 points in two of the last three. I don’t think Evansville will quite keep pace in this one.
