GAME NOTES: First-round action of the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament concludes Thursday night with a matchup featuring the 10th-seeded Bradley Braves taking on the seventh-seeded Drake Bulldogs at the Scottrade Center.

The winner of this contest will advance to the second round of the tournament to face the second-seeded Northern Iowa Panthers on Friday.

Bradley ended the regular season on a down note, dropping six straight contests to finish with a dismal 8-23 overall record. The Braves concluded conference play at 3-15 with a 60-52 loss against Indiana State Saturday in the regular-season finale.

Drake lost its final two games of the regular season, and dropped four of its last five altogether. The Bulldogs are coming off a tough loss to Southern Illinois in the season finale, 63-57, which set the team back to 6-12 against conference competition. Drake performed horribly at neutral sites this season, going 0-4 in those contests.

This meeting will be the 143rd all-time between Bradley and Drake. The Braves hold an 81-61 advantage over the Bulldogs, but it was Drake that swept the season series with a most recent victory over Bradley coming on Feb. 11, 60-54.

Bradley's offense was nowhere to be found on Saturday against Indiana State in the team's regular-season finale. The Braves shot a mere 33.3 percent from the floor, which included a 30 percent mark in the first half that allowed the Sycamores to grab the early advantage. Bradley connected on just 3-of-15 shooting from beyond the arc, and allowed Indiana State to hit 13-of-14 from the free-throw line in the contest. Warren Jones netted 12 points to pace the Braves in the loss, while Donte Thomas finished just shy of a double-double with nine points and nine rebounds. Auston Barnes contributed eight points with a team-best five assists in the loss.

Jones is the team's leading scorer, though the guard only played in 19 games this season which included a mere three starts. His 12.6 ppg average comes on 35 percent shooting from the floor. Tramique Sutherland played in and started 22 of Bradley's 31 games this season, and owns an 11.8 ppg mark headed into the conference tournament. Barnes finds himself right on the cusp of double- digit scoring this season for the Braves at 9.8 ppg, adding in a team-high 33 steals. Josh Cunningham tops the squad with 7.6 rpg, and Sutherland's 3.1 apg is the best the team has in the category. Bradley ranks last in the conference in scoring offense by netting 57.5 ppg on a horrible 37.8 ppg, although the team puts up a strong defensive effort by allowing 61.5 ppg to opponents.

Drake put up a strong offensive effort against Southern Illinois on Saturday, connecting on an even 50 percent of its field-goal attempts in the contest. Unfortunately for the Bulldogs, the Salukis were even hotter on the offensive end of the floor, as they finished the game hitting 52.1 percent of their tries with a 9-of-13 mark from the charity stripe to gain the advantage. Reed Timmer paced Drake in the loss with 25 points, hitting 9-of-15 shooting from the floor. Gary Ricks chipped in 11 points, and Jacob Enevold pulled down a team- high eight boards for the Bulldogs. Drake buried 9-of-18 from beyond the arc in the contest.

Like Bradley's finish to the season offensively, Drake's wasn't pretty either. The Bulldogs ended the regular season scoring just 59.8 ppg on 45.9 percent shooting, though the team did own a 41.3 percent mark from 3-point distance. But Drake's defense was the different in the down season, as the Bulldogs allowed 67.3 ppg to opponents, who buried a hefty 48.2 percent of their shots from the field. Timmer led the charge for the Bulldogs on offense, netting a team-best 11.6 ppg. Ricks finished the campaign scoring 10.9 ppg as the only other double-digit scorer for Drake. Enevold brought down 5.6 rpg, and Timmer added a team-high 74 assists on the season.

Neither one of these teams has much of a shot against the well-rounded Northern Iowa squad awaiting the winner of this clash. But Drake's offense has shown it can come alive at times, which could offset some of its defensive issues.