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STATE FARM MISSOURI VALLEY CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENT

March 2, 2017

St. Louis, Missouri - Arch Madness

Bradley - 67

Drake - 58

THE MODERATOR: The victorious Bradley Braves are with us. The 7th seed will now take on the No. 2 seed Wichita State tomorrow 6:00 p.m. at the start of the third session. Donte Thomas, Dwayne Lautier-Ogunleye represent the student body for Bradley. Brian Wardle, the head coach, is in the middle. We're going to ask Brian to start off with a statement on the game, then we'll go to questions for just the two student-athletes before we dismiss them.

BRIAN WARDLE: Very proud of this young group. We needed this. It's a good step for our program just to win a tournament game, just to get a feel for the tournament. Survive and advance. This is March. This is what it's all about.

It wasn't always pretty. I don't think we played our best game. Jeff would say the same. It was a grind-it-out slug fest, which we knew. When you play a team a third time within six days of each other, it can get that way and that's what it was.

We just found a way. We made the plays we needed to make down the stretch. Just very proud of them to survive and advance and move forward.

Q. Donte, you didn't take a shot in the first half. You ended up with 17 points. Did the coaches talk to you about being more assertive offensively at halftime?
DONTE THOMAS: Not at all. They just told me not to try to get it all at once. I'm not really one of the main scorers on the team, but he told me to go out there and not force it, but still stay aggressive.

Q. Your three-pointer, only your second one you've made this year. Tell us about that.
DONTE THOMAS: Shot clock winding down. I just felt like I needed to shoot it. I got some buckets to go down. So I just let it ride. Nice pass from Nate.

Q. First half, you guys started off slow, and you came in and gave the team some energy and a lift offensively. Could you tell us what your mindset was at that point.
DWAYNE LAUTIER-OGUNLEYE: I think that was definitely my mindset coming in. I think I can be an energy spark and I know I can bring the team some energy. We were a bit -- not down, but a bit sluggish. Everyone had a bit of jitters, I guess, being in a big arena. I've played in the conference tournament, so I tried to help everyone get going. This is March. This is what we wait for. I was just trying to feed myself and the rest of the team.

Q. Donte, I noticed -- I believe, if I saw it right, your top scoring games this year have been against Drake. Anything in particular about the matchup that just fits you?
DONTE THOMAS: Not really. They're just a very physical team. I think that kind of gets me going. Obviously, I got stitches in the first half. So I think that just kind of kept me going. I needed to be more aggressive.

Q. Tell us about the stitches. How did that happen?
DONTE THOMAS: Just big 7-footer going for the rebound. I think I caught an elbow in the face, nothing major. I really didn't want to come out of the game to get stitches. I wanted to be there for my team, but they made me.

BRIAN WARDLE: You needed those stitches.

Q. If the two players could just talk about the winning streak and what's kind of clicked in for the Braves the last few games.
THE MODERATOR: Dwayne, you go first, then Donte, please.

DWAYNE LAUTIER-OGUNLEYE: I think we've just been playing our best basketball. We've managed to make everything click. We've been playing great defense. We've been playing great offense from our defense. And we've had multiple people contribute from our stars to our role players to everyone really. Everyone's brought energy, and it's taken everybody to win those games. We're riding on momentum definitely. This is the first time I've been on a three-game, four-game winning streak here. Going to keep using that momentum.

We're still hungry because we feel that we can do more. Today was a scrappy game, but we're going to keep clawing and fighting because that's in our nature. We're never going to back down. We're going to keep going.

DONTE THOMAS: For me, just going off what he said, we just kept battling adversity. Through all the games in the season, we knew to stay together. Our main focus on the team is just to be the most together team in the conference. I think we're showing it down the stretch, and I'm glad we caught momentum going down into the tournament.

DWAYNE LAUTIER-OGUNLEYE: We definitely trusted the process, and it's taken over right now.

Q. You have a big assignment tomorrow against Wichita State. I know you haven't had a chance to think about it much, but how do you look at that game? They've handled you pretty well both games although you gave them a good tussle in Peoria.
DONTE THOMAS: We've just got to go out there and match their physicality. They're a good team, well coached. If we go out there and do what we do, I think we could pull it out.

DWAYNE LAUTIER-OGUNLEYE: Yeah, definitely. Just what Donte said. I'm sure, when we get back to the hotel, we're going to go through scout and look into them in details because our first priority was to win this game today. But definitely, they're a well coached team. They're very physical, very strong. And we just got to battle. We're never going to quit. We're going to keep fighting. That's something we definitely need to do for 40 minutes tomorrow to compete in that game.

THE MODERATOR: Gentlemen, thank you.

Q. Brian, can you take us through the first half. It looks like maybe the kids had some jitters. What was it, do you think, that snapped them out of it?
BRIAN WARDLE: Yeah, we started slow offensively. It took a couple questionable shots. You could kind of tell -- especially we started four freshmen. This is their first time here, first time doing this. You could definitely tell they were excited before the game, but it's a good experience to go through. Some of our shots, you could tell weren't really in rhythm, and usually some shots that we could make were kind of off to start that game. We kept battling defensively. The defense won us the game.

We held Drake, who's a very good scoring team, to 33% with 4 of 18 from three. That kept us real close, between one or two possessions when we went through the lull to start the game. Then I think we got it up to 11. They made their push back, and we ended the half up six.

It was just kind of a back and forth. I think both teams were feeling each other out. We know each other so well now. You know what they're running. You know their tendencies. They know ours. It was a grind-it-out game. Just very proud of the battle the whole second half and find a way to win.

Q. If you could speak to Donte's performance in the second half.
BRIAN WARDLE: He obviously caught some stitches and needed to get that fixed because that was a pretty good gash he had over his eye. And then it kind of woke him up a little bit. At halftime, he was focused. He was talking. He was leading at halftime. And you could kind of tell he was ready to go in. I told him, I said, start fast. You're not going to come out. He didn't play many minutes in the first half. So I thought he'd be pretty fresh.

Once he got the first bucket, we kept trying to feed him. His teammates did a good job executing, screening for him, trying to get him some post touches. The pick-and-pop three was good to see. You could tell he had a hot hand.

D. Lo carries us the first half for some seconds, and Donte did it in the second half. That's what it's about this time of year. Guys got to step up and find ways to win and find the hot hand, and we were able to do that.

Q. Down the stretch, they came back and cut it to four, I think, and then if I'm not mistaken, Donte has that drive down the lane. That was a big shot right after his three, and Darrell hit some big free throws for you down the stretch. Some good poise by the kids.
BRIAN WARDLE: Yeah, it was. It was good. Darrell wasn't having his best game shooting the ball, but he wants the ball down the stretch. That's what I love about him and why he's going to be a special player is he does not shy away from the big moments or the big shots. He definitely made some big plays for us down the stretch, which was great to see.

But we executed out of that time-out. It was a play that we wanted Donte to kind of catch it off the elbow on an isolation, fake the handoff, and look to drive that ball. He executed it well, and he obviously made the shot. Whenever the shot goes in, the play always looks better. So it was good execution by our group and just proud of how we defended and did some things in the last ten minutes of the game.

Q. Coach, how excited are you knowing that your young core has been opportunity to play an extra game tomorrow against one of the top schools in the conference?
BRIAN WARDLE: Yeah, I mean, I'm very happy for them. I mean, we've worked very hard this year and last year of building a culture, raising expectations and standards every year. They've trusted the process. Even though you don't always see the results, you've got to keep them focused every day on blocking out noise and just staying the course of what we're trying to do.

They're tremendous young men, as you can see with Donte and D. Lo. I'm blessed to have a lot of good men, good students in that locker room to work with every day. So I'm very excited for them. This is a great opportunity. They wanted to play Wichita State again. They're not just the top team in our conference, but one of the top teams, I think, in the country right now, the way they're playing, defending and scoring.

So we've got to fall back on what we did for 32 minutes at our place. I think we played them very well for 30 minutes, 32 minutes, and I told them that. But to beat a Wichita State, you've got to play 40 minutes of tough, physical, smart basketball, and we definitely have to, with our youth against them.

It's going to be a great test for us, but I'm excited for our program. I'm excited for these young guys to have this experience, and we're going to go in there and compete. I know that. Our effort and energy in practice has been tremendous in February, and the competitiveness is going to continue to be there. So we're going to get out there and throw it up and see what we got.

Q. Coach, you spoke of the defense. You held McMurray to 4 of 13 shooting today. Timmer, 2 of 9. You also mentioned this was the third time seeing them. Was the preparation easier, or did you find it kind of challenging knowing they would also make adjustments?
BRIAN WARDLE: Yeah, they made a couple of adjustments in the first half that caught us off guard. They sat on a couple of our plays we like to go to, did a great job there. Then you've got to adapt, got to adjust. Then it comes down a lot to just personnel. You don't score a ton off your plays this time of year, especially in the league when you've been playing everyone so much.

It comes down to one-on-one, knowing who you're defending and what they like to do. They obviously did a good job on us too at times.

You're going to have some ugly games this time of year, and I'm just proud of this team to respond. Stay through the ups and downs of the game, especially some poor segments that we had, and find, like I said, find a way to win the game and make the plays we needed to make.

It's going to be a fun experience for them tomorrow.

Q. Brian, these last four games, what parts of the process have maybe come to the forefront? Really picked up some steam recently.
BRIAN WARDLE: Even before this four-game winning streak, I felt all month we were playing better. There were maybe some losses, but I thought our leadership, our talk was better in practices during the games and huddles. And the mature -- I just think we've matured in a lot of ways. I think Jayden, Darrell, and Donte have really stepped up their leadership for the group. We've been taking care of the basketball better. We had 13 turnovers today and some careless passes, but you can live with 12 or 11 or 13 turnovers with our group.

We've been rebounding the ball a lot better. We didn't do a good job in the first half this game, but we did a much better job in the second half. So I think those things have really helped us.

Honestly, we switched the starting lineup kind of going into the month of February and end of January, with playing Nate, Jayden, and D.B. a lot in the backcourt. It's helped us offensively. I think we started games better. We've made more shots. Today, obviously, we didn't do that, but hopefully tomorrow we've got those jitters out of us, and we can come out relaxed and excited to play.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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