FAIRFAX, Va. — Bradley University’s Corey Thomas tied for the game high with 21 points in 27 minutes off the bench Saturday, helping lead the Braves to a 75-67 win at George Mason University in the second round of the National Invitation Tournament.
Bradley, a Missouri Valley Conference program and the No. 3 seed in the Dayton Region of the 32-team bracket, improved to 28-8 and advances to the quarterfinals, the last round in which home-court advantage will be available in the NIT. The Bears will get that Tuesday, when they host the unseeded University of Tennessee at Chattanooga at 7 p.m. Eastern at Carver Arena in Peoria, Illinois.
UTC (26-9) won 87-72 at home earlier Saturday against No. 1 seed Dayton, which had to travel in the first two rounds because its home arena was unavailable. UTC was a road winner in the first round, 109-106 in triple overtime against No. 4 seed Middle Tennessee State.
Bradley won 71-62 at home against North Alabama in the first round.
The Bradley-UTC winner advances to the NIT semifinals on April 1 at Butler University’s Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis. The title game is also there, two days later.
George Mason, the region’s No. 2 seed, finishes its season 27-8.
Bradley’s Thomas, who also had 11 rebounds for the Braves, shared the scoring honor with teammate Christian Davis, whose 21 points came on 7-for-11 shooting, including 5-for-8 from 3-point range. Duke Deen went 3-of-13 from the field — all of his makes and all but two of his attempts came from behind the arc — to finish with nine points while adding six assists.
K.D. Johnson led the Patriots in scoring, finishing with 16 points and two steals, Darius Maddox added 15 points and Zach Anderson had 11.
Bradley took the lead with 7:38 to go in the first half and never looked back. The score was 37-28 at halftime, with Davis racking up 13 points to that point. Thomas’ 15-point second half helped Bradley close out the victory to reach the NIT quarterfinals for the first time since 1994.
Bradley’s four NIT titles — in 1957, 1960, 1964 and 1982 — are second only to St. John’s six.