Courtside at Carver Arena on Blackout Night in Peoria. The “word” is the Braves will wear black tonight.

Funereal.

OK, it’s for real. Black unis. The Braves are warming up in their long red pants and long-sleeved red-and-white shirts, but Andrew Warren, Sam Maniscalco and Anthony Thompson have their jerseys hanging out, and they’re black, with wide red stripes up the sides, bordered by white trim. Guess they think nobody will notice for the big “surprise” that’s supposed to whip the hometown crowd into uncontrolled hysteria. And ISU will wear white.

I’ll try to reserve comment on this marketing ploy for now, but I was just at the pregame party in the Civic Center Theater lobby, and I was sitting at a table with 11 Bradley fans. I polled them: Black uniforms, up or down. The result: 9 thumbs down, 1 thumbs up and 1 abstention. The abstention came from a woman who said, “I just don’t like ISU wearing white on our court.”

Never underestimate the capacity of marketing genius, my dear.

The refs tonight: John Higgins, Randy McCall and Tom Eades. Top-flight crew.

Bradley tonight will try to avenge the disaster in Normal on Jan. 30. The good news for Bradley fans is that when faced with a similar rematch against Missouri State in mid-January, one week after a 19-point loss in Springfield, Mo., the Braves returned the favor, 74-58 here. Anything can happen. That’s why we play the games.

ISU lineups are up: Osiris Eldridge, Alex Rubin, Lloyd Phillips, Tony Lewis, and Dinma Odiakosa.

Bradley goes with the usual: Sam Maniscalco, Andrew Warren, Chris Roberts, Taylor Brown and Will Egolf.

Anthem and tipoff coming up …

Well, the Braves just came back on the court, all wearing their black trunks. If the marketeers were hoping for a wild-and-crazy response from the fans, they failed. Just your normal greeting as the band strikes up “Charge On” and the players go through their final layups. The full unis are black, with white letters and numerals trimmed in red; red stripes down the sides, bordered in white.

We do not have a sellout. We do, however, have a lot more Bradley students in the house tonight.

Tipoff:

Maniscalco drives for a teardrop that gets goaltended by Odiakosa. … Controversy already: Eldridge called for over and back, but the call is overruled; claim that the ball was deflected by a BU player. … Brown scores on a baseline jumper. … Bradley’s energy level is much higher than it was in Normal, especially on D. … ISU gets an offensive rebound, but the Braves get a steal by Warren, a kickout to Roberts, who pulls up and swishes a 3 for a 7-0 lead, and Tim Jankovich wants a timeout for his Redbirds at 18:08. … Odiakosa in traffic underneath and gets his shot blocked. … Bradley hands on lots of balls. … Maniscalco a drive through the ISU defense for a lefty layup. … Eldridge finally puts the Birds on the board with an NBA 3. …

Timeout at 15:27 — Bradley 9, ISU 3

Early stats: Bradley 4-0 in the paint, 5-0 off turnovers. ISU up on the boards 5-3, including 3-0 offensive. … ISU 1-of-7 with two turnovers; BU 4-of-6 and zero miscues. …

Sam Singh and Dyricus Simms-Edwards replace Egolf and Roberts. … Austin Hill hits a 3 for the Birds, who’ve not been able to do damage inside. … Roberts back for Warren. Bradley a little ragged now on offense, but very aggressive defensively. … Nicely run fastbreak by Bradley ends with Jake Eastman getting fouled hard by Jackie Carmichael. …

Timeout at 11:52 — Bradley 11, ISU 8

Braves in the 1-3-1 zone, gives up another ORB (ISU’s sixth), and the Redbirds finally score on a second chance. … Egolf gets a soft tripping foul by standing still, and Singh comes in for him. … Now Carmichael pushes Singh to get open back door and dunks. … Nice drive by Eastman off a reverse flow left to right. …  Carmichael another ORB and dunk. … Bradley’s getting killed on the boards again. … Singh gets a tip-in for BU’s first offensive board and first second-chance points. … Now Carmichael free for a might-as-well-be-a-dunk. He’s killing the Braves inside with Odiakosa on the bench. … Bradley’s starting five back in the game together now; see if they can re-establish the defense. …

Timeout at 7:55 — Bradley 18, ISU 16

Eldridge struggling. BU hounding him all over the court; he finally gets fouled at the rim and clanks both free throws. … Roberts to Egolf on a high-low for a layup. … And Egolf strips Odiakosa and starts a break that ends with a Warren layup and Janks calling another timeout, just as the faithful get cranked up. Much of the crowd on hits feet. … Warren now penetrates and scores off a jump stop in the paint to put BU up 10. … Lewis gets free for a layup in the halfcourt.  … Great defensive play by Egolf, who sets baseline as Eldridge drives and pulls up to avoid charging. Contact, no call, and Eldridge falls OB with the ball. …

Timeout at 3:39 — Bradley 29, ISU 18

Maniscalco drives vs. the shot clock, shoots and misses and gets his own rebound, then scores on a 3 on the second chance he created. … Now ISU gets a shot-clock violation with Hill dribbling, trying to find somewhere to go. … If the Braves played defense with this intensity and execution every night (not counting the way they’ve been unable to stop Carmichael), they’d be on the NCAA bubble. … Defense like this would have turned at least four losses into wins; perhaps as many as five. …

Brown with a 3 from the corner before Lewis gets open underneath to score. …

Halftime — Bradley 35, ISU 25

Some stats: Bradley shooting 51.7 percent to ISU’s 34.5. Bradley up 18-12 in the paint and has only 3 turnovers. ISU board advantage has decreased to a respectable (for BU) 18-16. After being down 8-1 on the ORB at one point, Bradley now trails only 8-4 there, and 9-5 on second-chance points. Braves have to keep that under control in the second half. Nobody in foul trouble; four team on BU, three on ISU. …

Of course, we’ve been here before. Still a second half at home to play … Black or no black. …

And BTW, university President Joanne Glasser is wearing a red blazer. …

Second half coming up …

Phillips opens with a 3 for ISU. … Most excellent drive and pull-up floater by Brown moving across the lane.  … But now Rubin with a 3, and the margin is six. … Egolf gets too aggressive with the ball in the post and travels. … And now ISU goes block-to-block, Odiakosa to Lewis for a dunk, and Jim Les wants timeout with a 37-33 lead at 18:13. … Not that Bradley’s flat to start, but ISU is a different team. BU must respond. …

ORB putback by Odiakosa cuts the margin to two points. … The Redbirds have regained their energy on the glass, and they’re starting to D up. … Leave it to Maniscalco to stop the bleeding. He drives and hits a circus bucket, turning away from the basket on the drive to avoid contact, absorbs the foul (reaching across his arms) and spins the ball into the bucket. Makes the FT, and BU has a five-point lead again. That was a heck of a play. …

Timeout at 15:54 — Bradley 40, ISU 35

Really nice no-look pass by Simms-Edwards to Singh, wide open underneath. And SS hits the layup. … Brown with a drive on which he lost the handle twice, but still managed to score on a reverse flip-in at the rim. … Maniscalco to Egolf for a dunk in transition, and Janks wants T.O., baby. BU lead back to 10 points, as the Braves toughen up again defensively and fighting for rebounds. …

The BU band tonight is not waiting for the official “fight-song timeouts” to strike up the chorus. …

BU runs a screen and roll, Warren to Brown for a layup. … Eldridge finally scores his second FG, cutting through the lane and taking a pass, scoring the layup over Warren. O is 2-for-11 now. …

Timeout at 11:11 — Bradley 49, ISU 39

Roberts gets Bradley an ORB, and DSE takes it hard to the basket, scores on a driving bank shot while getting bumped. Tough, tough play. … After a scramble, Maniscalco is pinned against the halfcourt line, but sees Roberts in the corner, fires the ball; Roberts drives base and gets hammered by Carmichael. That had a chance to get ugly, but calmer heads and refs step in. Good, hard foul — the kind you have to make to prevent dunks and layups. Make sure the man doesn’t score if you foul. Roberts goes to the line and splits the FTs. … Bradley doing a decent job maintaining this lead around 10 points. … But now a runout by ISU for a dunk after a bad pass by Brown. Then an ill-advised 3 attempt by Brown, way early in the shot clock that has Les fuming, and now Odiakosa underneath for a dunk and he gets fouled and makes the FT. The margin is six and the pressure is on BU to regroup. … Warren misses a moving 3. … Not over yet. …

Timeout at 7:49 — Bradley 54, ISU 48

Hill scores on a spinning drive through the lane and it’s a four-point game. … Brown airballs from the corner. … Now Hill drives the paint and scores and gets fouled. Back-to-back tough plays by Hill and now a FT, and BU’s lead is down to 54-53. … Redbirds pound it inside to Odiakosa, who gets fouled on the ground. Still no bonus. BU with five team fouls, ISU with four. … Odiakosa gets a big ORB and Egolf fouls him; Egolf’s fourth. And BU has only 10 the whole game. Odiakosa at the line this time; splits for the tie. …

Crowd urging the Braves. … Blocked shots on both ends and it’s BU ball again. … Action intense and fast. Bradley has to toughen up on the boards and prevent the second chances; also needs to regain some patient aggressiveness on offense. …

Timeout at 3:18 — Bradley 54, ISU 54

DSE goes to the line; was fouled on a drive to stop the clock for the timeout. He makes both. Got to have those. … Singh gets called for grabbing Odiakosa in the post, and the ISU big man shoots a bonus situation. Tie game again. … DSE misses a 3, but in the battle, Brown gets the board and is fouled. His bonus is missed; still tied. That could haunt. … ISU takes the lead on Odiakosa banker over Singh in the post. … ISU’s first lead of the game with just over two minutes left. … Maniscalco great drive all the way down the middle for a layup over a flying big man. Tied again. … And now Hill in the paint puts ISU back in the lead. … Wild finish. … Maniscalco for 3, for the lead at 1:07, and Les calls timeout. …

Carmichael misses, rebounds own twice and finally scores for ISU lead again. … Maniscalco forces a drive and Carmichael blocks it about six rows into the stands. … Bradley needs to score and defend. …Guess that’s stating the obvious, but that’s the requirement at the moment. …

Bradley gets a break on a call after Brown knocks the ball OB. That, after Maniscalco tries to force up a 3 and then has to dump it off for a pass. Given a reprieve, Maniscalco drives the lane and flings up a prayer that misses by a yard. ISU crashes the rebound and BU fouls. Carmichael shooting the one-and-one; missed and Warren rebounds. … Brown gets an open look just inside the top of the key, but it’s way too hard. ISU rebounds, and Odiakosa is shooting with 3 seconds left. … Odiakosa misses, Brown rebounds and gets it to Maniscalco, who can’t get the long shot off in time, but misses anyway. …

And another double-digit, second-half lead goes bye-bye for the Braves at Carver Arena.

Burn the unis, please.

Final score — ISU 62, Bradley 61