PEORIA — It’s often said that lightning doesn’t strike twice, but it already has for the Bradley men's basketball team this season.

Engaged in their second straight overtime game to start the season, Bradley got a corner 3-pointer from junior forward Christian Davis with seconds remaining to help lift the Braves to a 72-66 win over Utah State in the home opener at Carver Arena.

Bradley is 2-0 after two overtime wins — the first sealed by a game-winning floater from junior forward Darius Hannah with two seconds remaining Monday at UAB, and the second after Davis’ game-sealing shot on Saturday.

BOX SCORE: Bradley 72, Utah State 66 (OT)

“I’m just proud of our group for finding ways to win,” Davis said. “That’s going to matter the whole season, especially down the stretch, so I think the fact that we’re doing it right now is a good sign.”

“It feels great, obviously to be 2-0, but it’s still one game at a time and it’s early in the year,” Bradley coach Brian Wardle said. “We’re so tired right now, I don’t even know if our guys can celebrate much because we’ve been in some battles already.”

Neither team led by more than four points in the first half and Bradley led by as much as nine in the second before the visiting Aggies made a charge. But execution in crunch time proved to be the difference again for the Braves.

“When you have close games like this, it’s about making big plays in big moments and we’ve been able to do that and execute what we want out of timeouts in the last two games,” Wardle said. “That’s huge to have five veterans that know how to execute, and that’s what it came down to.”

Overtime again? No problem

Following a pair of free throws from Utah State forward Great Osobor to cut the Bradley lead to 67-66, the Braves took a timeout with 19 seconds remaining. Noticing that the Aggies came out in a 1-3-1 zone, the Braves hoped to find an open shooter in the corner. They found Davis, who swished in the shot on a feed from Leons.

“My teammates and my coaches trust me to take those shots every day, so who am I to not trust myself?” Davis said.

After going the first two and a half minutes of the frame without a field goal, the Braves got on the board when junior guard Connor Hickman threaded the needle to find senior forward Darius Hannah to put Bradley on top 65-64. Leons then found Hickman to extend the lead to three with 50 seconds left.

Osobor had scored 14 first-half points before the Bradley post defense — anchored by Hannah, Leons and sophomore center Ahmet Jonovic — slowed him and Aggies 7-foot center Isaac Johnson. The Aggies went 0-for-6 from the floor with a turnover in the extra frame.

“(Davis’ shot) was a huge play, but we had multiple defensive stops that were big,” Wardle said. “We had some people step up for us in the second half, and I thought Ahmet Jonovic was huge for us.”

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In a physical second half, Bradley had multiple chances to take bigger leads but went 2-for-6 from the free throw line down the stretch. Down 62-61 with 53 seconds left, senior guard Duke Deen missed his first free shot, but buried the second one to knot the game at 62.

“If we would’ve made some free throws, it probably wouldn’t have been (an overtime game),” Wardle said. “This group needs experience together, and all of it helps your team grow. Hopefully this brings more confidence and energy into our locker room and we can build off that.”

For the second straight game, Bradley had a chance to win on a buzzer-beater in regulation, but a 3-pointer from Hickman bounced off the rim. The junior put up one of his best games in a Bradley uniform and nearly had a double-double with 21 points and eight rebounds.

“We were feeding Hickman the ball all second half," Wardle said, "he was rolling and he got real confident going to the paint."

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Aside from Hickman, Hannah and Davis stepped up with big games. Davis scored a team-high seven in the first half and grabbed multiple crucial rebounds late in the second, finishing with 13 points and five rebounds in a career-high 33 minutes.

“I’m really happy with the opportunity that I’m getting and especially the last game, I have to do more than just play offense,” Davis said. “I have to do more than just shoot to be able to contribute with the minutes I’m playing so that’s something I’m focusing on, just trying to get us wins.”

Added Wardle: “He works his butt off, that's the easiest way to put it. He’s a mature man, got a really good work ethic and is a great teammate. You definitely want good things to happen to people who work really hard, and I think he’s going to have a really good year for us.”

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Hannah defended the rim with a vengeance, blocking three shots, corralling five rebounds and scoring 14 on 7-of-13 shooting, including some mid-range jumpers he buried in the back-and-forth first half.

“It’s just the confidence and the work over the offseason and the confidence of my teammates,” Hannah said of his improved shooting stroke. “They trust me to take my shots.”

Osobor finished with 22 points, seven rebounds and four blocks, but Bradley’s young Serbian center Jonovic added his name to the list of role players that made an impact on Saturday night.

Jonovic used his 7-foot-1 frame to disrupt his matchups in the post, including forcing a missed close-range shot to set up Hickman’s potential game-winner at the end of regulation.

“Our size, length and depth in our bench, like big (Ahmet Jonovic), putting big bodies on them made them make quick decisions instead of just holding it,” Hannah said.

What Bradley has proved through two games

Saturday’s win not only meant a spotless start to the season against two quality mid-major opponents, but it also gave Bradley its first win over a Mountain West Conference opponent in program history. Last year, Utah State defeated the Braves 84-62 in Utah behind a lights-out shooting performance and a rowdy crowd.

But with only one Aggie returning from that Utah State team last year, the Braves used their home-court advantage to avenge the loss.

“There’s no other place like Carver Arena,” Hannah said. “They bring the energy and that’s what we feed off of. Sometimes we get down in the game, we can help each other up but Carver’s always there and got our back.”

It may not have played out how they drew it up, but the Braves are 2-0 to start a season for the first time since the 2018-19 season, when they won the first of back-to-back MVC Tournament titles.

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While it’s much too early to look at the postseason, Davis feels like the Braves have shown traits that will benefit the team down the road.

“I think we stayed steady because the first half was pretty even, the second half, they started to hit some threes and we went down,” Davis said. “I think in the first two games, we’ve been able to stay pretty steady and stay together, I think that’s the biggest thing.”

An aggressive non-conference schedule built by Wardle and his staff has also paid off. Confidence is certainly one thing the Braves aren’t short on after two overtime victories.

“When you’re playing good teams, this is how the games are: they’re one possession, two possession or less,” Wardle said. “We’re going to have a lot of these this year.”

Next on the docket for Wardle’s crew is a Tuesday home game against Tarleton State, who joined Division I last season and are members of the Western Athletic Conference (WAC).

While both of Bradley’s wins have been anything but typical, how they’ve done so has been prototypical Bradley basketball: resilience, defense and execution in big-time moments.

“We just have to fight until the end,” Hannah said. “We don’t know how the game is going to end but we just have to go out there and play the way we know how to play … and win.”

This article originally appeared on Journal Star: Bradley Braves beats Utah State in college basketball home opener in Peoria