Senior guard Aaron Carter, starting for an injured senior guard Jake Kelly got things started for the Sycamores with a 3-pointer.

I hit my first few shots and that got me going and kind of got the team going too.

“The Braves came back to tie the game at five with 17 minutes left to play in the half,” Carter said.

From then on the Sycamores took over with a 13-6 run fueled by two 3-pointers from Carter and a dunk by junior guard Dwayne Lathan.

The Sycamores continued to increase their lead over the rest of the half and pulled out to a 39-22 lead at halftime.

The Sycamores shot 41 percent from the floor for the first half and forced 10 Bradley turnovers.

Just 30 seconds into the second half, the Sycamores pulled out to their largest lead of the game at 41-22 off a jumper by Carter.

The Braves slowly started to chip away at the Sycamore lead throughout the half and cut the Sycamore lead to eight with 5:16 left to play in the game. However, every time the Braves made a run the Sycamores countered and never saw their lead slip below eight.

The Sycamores held on and went on to score their first MVC win of the season 80-66 over the Bradley Braves.

Carter led the Sycamores with a career-high tying 19 points and five rebounds.

“I just kind of let it come to me, my shots were falling early and that kind of helped me,” Carter said.

Lathan had 18 points for the Sycamores with five rebounds, five blocks and three assists.

Freshman guard Steve McWhorter and redshirt freshman RJ Mahurin each also had 10 points for the Sycamores.

As a team the Sycamores shot 44 percent from the floor and forced 17 Braves turnovers leading to 15 Sycamore points. The Sycamores had 19 assists to only 8 turnovers.

The Sycamores will return to action Saturday when they travel to face the Purple Aces of Evansville with tip off at 8:05 p.m. The Sycamores will then return to Hulman Center Jan. 4, 2011 when they host the Redbirds of Illinois State with a 7:05 p.m. tipoff.