PEORIA — The Bradley Braves National Invitation Tournament run ended in the opening round with an 80-66 loss to the Dayton Flyers on Wednesday before 2,436 at Carver Arena.
BU finishes 21-13, while Dayton moves on to the second round to face UNCW this weekend.
Taking it all in
The Bradley Braves appeared in the bracket for the 2026 National Invitation Tournament on Sunday night in a low-key moment, simply a field of teams dropped all at once on social media.
But it meant a lot to the 21-12 Braves to get at least one more game together, not to mention a test against a top A-10 Conference opponent in the Dayton Flyers. The game is at 8 p.m. March 18 at Carver Arena in Peoria and streaming on ESPNU.
“I was at my apartment, just refreshing X,” said Bradley senior guard Alex Huibregtse, whose college career has come down to win-or-done. “It’s great to play in it, another postseason game. This is my last chance, I’ve been taking it a game at a time, and as a competitor you always want to keep playing.”
Huibregtse transferred to Bradley from Wright State this season, where he played 11.4 miles away from the University of Dayton. Those teams met eight times between 1988 and 1997 and have never played since.
“There’s a huge controversy of Wright State and Dayton never playing each other, same city, however many miles apart,” Huibregtse said. “For my Wright State friends, this will mean a lot to them. I’ve never played them.”
“I’m thinking …”
Bradley star guard Jaquan Johnson is focused and ready to play, although he understands he’ll have a decision to make whenever this 2025-26 season ends.
The prevailing belief is he’ll command interest from Power 5 programs offering as much as $1 million to lure him. He’s pragmatic about it, and all he had on his mind Monday was film study, game plan installation, practice and the Dayton Flyers.
“We were thinking our chances were 50-50 to get into the NIT, but we got it and we’re here now and we deserve it,” Johnson said. “Just another chance to play with these guys. And I love the competition that’s in this tournament, I feel like there’s some great teams we can compete against. It’s a plus, Dayton is good tough team for sure.”
And about what happens after the NIT?
“I’m definitely thinking about staying,” said Johnson, who noted he has not received offers from any other programs yet. “Coach Wardle is a great coach, I love playing for him and with these guys around me. So definitely, I’m thinking about it.”
NIT odds
Who do the oddsmakers think will win the 2026 National Invitation Tournament?
Here are odds top 10 favorites posted by Covers:
The Braves in the NIT
Bradley is 29-20 all-time in the National Invitation Tournament.
The Braves won the NIT title four times:
The 2026 NIT marks the 25th appearance for Bradley in the tournament. The Braves are 8-3 at home all-time in the NIT. This marks the fourth straight postseason trip to the NIT for the Braves, who reached the quarterfinals last spring before losing to eventual champion Chattanooga.
Bravely Speaking
Jaquan Johnson has 85 steals, second on Bradley’s all-time single-season list. The BU record is 86, held by Dyricus Simms-Edwards (2012-13). … Johnson is tied for third in the nation with 85 steals. … Bradley has won 20+ games under head coach Brian Wardle for four straight seasons. He has seven 20-win seasons at the BU helm, tying him with Chuck Orsborn for the most in program history. … Wardle has 302 wins in his career at Bradley and Green Bay combined. He is 207-159 overall at Bradley, the second-most wins in program history. In Missouri Valley Conference games he has 114 victories, surpassing Jim Molinari this season for the all-time program lead. … Braves guard Alex Huibregtse is 43 of 85 (51%) from 3-point range in the last 11 games. He led the Valley in 3-point shooting, and has five games in which he’s made at least six 3-pointers. … The Braves have 265 steals for the season, led by Johnson with 85 and A.J. Smith with 44. That’s the ninth-best single-season team total in BU history, and one short of the 2006-07 team’s eighth-place slot at 266. … Bradley is 11-8 all-time against A-10 Conference teams and 7-0 at home. … Dayton has eight wins against Quad 1 or Quad 2 teams combined. … Bradley has five. … KenPom ranks Dayton’s defense at No. 32 in the nation.
The Journal Star will provide updates from Carver Arena throughout the Bradley-Dayton game. See highlights below:
Bradley vs. Dayton live score updates
FINAL: Dayton 80, Bradley 66
Braves fade back to 20 down
Keonte Jones comes in from left baseline and buries an alley-oop to restore Dayton’s lead to 20 points at 77-57 with 3:38 left.
Braves heat up
Bradley gets three consecutive 3-pointers in a span of 72 seconds from Montana Wheeler and Alex Huibregtse (two) to cut a 20-point deficit down to 13 with 8:43 left.
Dayton 60, Bradley 42
Dayton is 18 of 20 from the free throw line. Bradley is 6 of 7. Timoty van der Knaap with four fouls in 15 minutes.
Wardle gets T’d
Braves head coach Brian Wardle, after watching some lopsided officiating, draws a technical foul with 13:04 left. Bennett makes both free throws for a 58-39 lead.
A few seconds later officials hit Jaquan Johnson and Timoty van der Knaap with fouls 15 seconds apart, and Wardle paces the sideline, mock grin, shaking his head.
Bully on the board
Bradley point guard Jaquan Johnson gets his first bucket, a 3-pointer from the right wing with 14:40 left to pull the Braves within 53-39.
He was 0 of 6 from the field and had one made free throw before that.
Braves trail 51-33
Braves have 8 turnovers through 24 minutes. But Dayton? One.
Fans are all-in from both sides
HALFTIME: Dayton 47, Bradley 30
Those final 20 seconds
Bradley freshman Dietrich Richardson’s pass is picked off for a turnover with 20 seconds left. Ball goes the other way and Dayton’s Bennett launches a 3-pointer, makes it, and is fouled by Richardson for an and-1 with 3.2 seconds left.
That breaks open the game to 47-30 at halftime.
Braves try to get a run going
Jonovic with a jumper and Wheeler with a gritty drive to the rim through the trees gives Bradley a little run to cut within six at 25-19 with 6:37 left.
But Dayton gets a 3 from De’Shayne Montgomery, a pair of free throws from L’Etang and dunk from Montgomery and it’s back to 10 at 32-22 with 3:57 left.
Braves down 10 with under 8 left
The Braves trail, 23-13, with 7:54 left as the media break arrives. BU with just five made field goals so far.
Bradley made an adjustment with its starting lineup, btw, putting 6-10 Corey Thomas in to get bigger against Dayton’s big front line. He took Timoty van der Knaap’s slot.
Dayton 17, Bradley 9
Braves are -8 at the break with 11:13 left in the first half.
Bennett has 8 for Dayton. Bradley is 0 of 5 from 3-point range and shooting 30.8% from the field in the early going.
Bennett is perfect
Dayton guard Javon Bennett hits another 3, he is 3 of 3 from long distance so far. It’s 14-7 Flyers with 14:02 left.
Flyers ace connects
Dayton’s top player, all-A10 Conference guard Javon Bennett, buries two straight 3-pointers to answer Bradley’s opening bucket.
Another key matchup, Bennett vs BU star Jaquan Johnson.
Bennett is listed at 5-foot-10, btw. No way.
The battle begins
Bradley center Ahmet Jonovic backs in and scores against Amael L’Etang to get the game’s first points in a battle between 7-foot-1 big men.
Going to be a key matchup.
Burch is out
Bradley guard Demarion Burch is in concussion protocol after taking an errant elbow in practice. He will not dress.
Projected starting lineups
Dayton Flyers: Javon Bennett (16.2ppg, 34.7% 3FG, 101a, 52 steals); Deshayne Montgomery (13.4ppg, 72 steals); Amael L’Etang (12.1ppg, 5.8rpg, 37 blocks); Keonte Jones (7.7ppg, 5.4rpg, 37 steals, 51% FG); Jaium Simon (5.7 ppg, 3.5rpg).
Bradley Braves: Jaquan Johnson (17.1ppg, 85 steals, 119 assists, 54% FG, 38.4% 3FG); Alex Huibregtse (12.6ppg, 43.8% FG, 43% 3FG, 84.4% FT); A.J. Smith (8.5ppg, 5.3rpg, 44 steals, 43.1% FG, 37% 3FG); Ahmet Jonovic (8.2ppg, 5.4rpg, 44 blocks); Timoty van der Knaap (6.5ppg, 4.8rpg, 42.7% FG).
Bradley vs. Dayton by the numbers
What time does Bradley play Wednesday?
What channel is the Bradley vs Dayton on?
Bradley vs Dayton live stream options
Bradley vs Dayton will be available via ESPNU.
Bradley basketball vs Dayton betting
Game lines and odds via OddsShark are as of 9 a.m. Tuesday:
Bradley basketball schedule
Record: 21-12
Buy Bradley basketball tickets this season via StubHub
Dave Eminian is the Journal Star sports columnist, and covers Bradley men’s basketball, the Rivermen and Chiefs. He writes the Cleve In The Eve sports column for pjstar.com. He can be reached at 686-3206 or deminian@pjstar.com. Follow him on X.com @icetimecleve.
This article originally appeared on Journal Star: Bradley basketball vs Dayton: Live updates, notes, more from Bradley’s NIT game
Reporting by Dave Eminian, Peoria Journal Star / Journal Star
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