PEORIA — The 6,285 fans at Carver Arena on Saturday not only made up the largest Bradley crowd in a year, but also owned another superlative.

"When Donte (Thomas) dunked that ball (in the final minute), I’ve never heard Carver that loud since I’ve been at Bradley," said BU coach Brian Wardle. "I told the team you’ll hear that a lot if we keep working hard."

The Braves couldn’t work much harder than they did Saturday fighting through screen after screen of Evansville’s old-school motion offense in posting a 66-53 victory.

"It’s tiring (defending them)," said BU guard Dwayne Lautier-Ogunleye. "They move constantly. It’s tough to guard because you can’t take one thing away. They have a second and a third action and they’re very good at reading the screens."

Bradley held the visitors to their MVC lows in field-goal percentage at 31.6 percent and points at 53. Only Duke, which caught the Purple Aces when their two leading scorers didn’t play, defended Evansville better this season.

"They’re a very good defensive team and they play hard," said Evansville coach Marty Simmons about Bradley. "Our decision-making down the stretch wasn’t very good. Down the stretch, we’re in the bonus and we settle for jump shots instead of looking to attack."

Indeed, Evansville missed its last six attempts as a 56-50 Bradley lead at 3:22 expanded to the final margin. Bradley guard Darrell Brown was instrumental down the stretch, scoring seven points in a row ahead of Thomas’ slam off an alley-oop fast-break pass from Lautier-Ogunleye.

It was one of many contributions from the Englishman. He scored 12 points, grabbed nine rebounds, dished out four assists and committed just one turnover while also being entrusted to the most difficult defensive assignment in Ryan Taylor.

The silky smooth 6-foot-6 guard came in as the Valley’s scoring leader at 20.4 points per game. He managed just half his average — 10 points on 4-for-17 shooting — with DLO draped over him most of the night.

"I don’t think I did a good job on him last time we played them," said Lautier-Ogunleye about Taylor’s 21-point performance. "I feel like I gave him too much room and wasn’t aggressive on him.

"Tonight, I just tried to be more aggressive and just pester him. I didn’t want him to get any easy shots. He made me work the whole night. He’s a great player. I was just fortunate to read the screens better than the first game."

The 37-point turnaround from that 68-44 shellacking by the Purple Aces two weeks ago in southern Indiana began with a 14-2 Bradley burst in the first four minutes.

Evansville fought back to within a point with 4:02 left in the half before the Braves finished the period with a 10-0 run, capped by Thomas’ 3-pointer, just his third of the season.

"That was huge for them," Simmons said.

A six-point run to start the second half provided a 17-point BU cushion after a DLO breakaway dunk. But then came a short road version of the Braves as turnovers and missed shot after missed shot allowed the visitors to crawl back.

"Our lulls are a little too long right now," Wardle said. "We have to trim those down."

But the Braves finished well as they have done in most every one of those 12 straight home wins.

Playing with a short bench that saw Luuk van Bree log just two minutes and Ryan Stipanovich none, Bradley closed with an 8-1 spurt to ease the audience’s angst about the Evansville rally.

"When the crowd is as loud as it was tonight, it’s lovely to play in front of them," Lautier-Ogunleye said. "They give us energy to feed off and we try to give them energy to feed off also. We protect our home court. We don’t want to lose for our fans. We want to put on a great show for them."

They’ll have another opportunity to do so Tuesday when league favorite Missouri State comes to town. 

This same stingy Bradley defense must greet MSU along with a full complement of big guys for the much larger Bears.

"We’ll need everyone Tuesday night," Wardle said. "Tonight was more a game for matchups."

And avenging an embarrassing loss with the help of more than 6,000 of their friends.

Dave Reynolds can be reached at 686-3210 or at dreynolds@pjstar.com. Follow him on Twitter at davereynolds2.