Bradley woke up Thursday morning and started “packing [their] bags.” The Braves received a positive COVID-19 test and thought their season was over.
About two hours later, they unpacked. Their game against Southern Illinois was still on.
It was a false positive — and another reminder of how the pandemic has affected the 2020-21 season.
“Everyone’s gone through the pandemic,” said Braves coach Brian Wardle after the game. “People are using it for an excuse, I’d say that’s kind of foolish because it’s a reason why things happened to your team this year. It’s hurt our team in ways. I think veteran teams, more experienced teams handled it better … If there’s another pandemic, I think I’ll coach better through it, but I’m just praying that we never have to do this again.”
The No. 8-seeded Braves regrouped and headed to Enterprise Center to face off against the No. 9-seeded Salukis in the Arch Madness play-in round.
Southern Illinois, fresh off an overtime loss to No. 20-ranked Loyola Chicago last weekend, started hot behind sophomore guard Lance Jones, who scored six of the Salukis’ first 11 points.
Then, he hit the ground, grabbing his ankle with 14:22 left in the first half. Southern Illinois, already without sophomore guard Marcus Domask due to injury, had to trudge on without its top scorer.
Enter sophomore guard Ben Harvey, who poured in 24 points off the bench to help lead the No. 9-seeded Salukis to a 73-63 win over No. 8-seeded Bradley.
But the big question after the game: Will Jones be available for Friday’s game against No. 1-seeded Loyola Chicago?
“He’s getting an X-ray right now, so we’ll see how everything is,” said Southern Illinois coach Bryan Mullins. “If it was a minor sprain, he probably would’ve [come] back and tried to play. We’ll see tonight how he’s feeling and what the X-ray shows.”
As for the game itself, the Salukis trailed for a total of 16 seconds and forced eight Bradley turnovers in the second half to defeat the two-time defending Arch Madness champion Braves. Bradley was led by freshman Rienk Mast, who turned in his second career double-double with 24 points and 10 rebounds.
Southern Illinois advances to the quarterfinal round, an 11 a.m. matchup with No. 1-seeded Loyola Chicago. The Salukis entered the tournament with 62 combined minutes of Arch Madness experience after last year’s exit in the first round.
But Mullins thinks his team will be ready to go, just 16 hours after game one ended.
“If you’re not ready to play against a top-25 [team] in Arch Madness, then you probably shouldn’t be playing college basketball,” Mullins said. “Our kids will be excited and they’ll be ready to go.”
Tip-off between No. 9-seeded Southern Illinois and No. 1-seeded Loyola Chicago is set for 11 a.m. The game will be broadcast on the MVC TV Network and NBC Sports Chicago.