Meet Journal Star senior sports writer and columnist Dave Eminian
Journal Star reporter Dave Eminian covers Bradley Braves basketball and Peoria Rivermen hockey.
PEORIA — The Bradley Braves men’s basketball team has added a home game to their 2025-26 schedule, but it won’t be played at Carver Arena.
Bradley will host North Central College at 1 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 14 at the 4,200-capacity campus arena, Renaissance Coliseum. The game will be treated as a regular-season outing on Bradley’s schedule and count toward its record.
The Braves last played a game on campus when they hosted Lewis in an exhibition game, winning 71-58 on Oct. 26 in the 2017-18 season. Bradley’s last regular-season game on campus was in 2014-15, against Central Michigan, an 84-73 win before 4,204 on Dec. 2, 2014 under head coach Geno Ford.
The Cardinals are an NCAA Division-III program, and they will play the day before against North Park University in Chicago. The NCC roster includes 6-foot-5, 190-pound freshman Barrett Marfell, a Peoria Heights native who began his high school career as a three-sport athlete in basketball, football and baseball.
How you can see the game
All tickets are $20 for the game, with the exception of Bradley students, who get in free. Students can claim their free tickets starting at 8 a.m. Wednesday.
Current Braves basketball season ticket holders can buy tickets beginning 8 a.m. Thursday. The general public gets access to tickets at 8 a.m. on Friday. Renaissance Coliseum capacity is 4,200.
Information on how to buy tickets online or in-person can be found at Bradley’s ticketing site.
Bradley basketball special jerseys
The Braves have added special uniforms for the game at Renaissance Coliseum. They are a base white. But the numbers are red, bordered with gray.
And the front of the jersey has “The Hilltop” scrawled in cursive, in red, with the script bordered by gray.
The Braves plan to wear these only for the game at Renaissance Coliseum. It’s not known yet what the team plans to do with them beyond that.
Dave Eminian is the Journal Star sports columnist, and covers Bradley men’s basketball, the Rivermen and Chiefs. He writes the Cleve In The Eve sports column for pjstar.com. He can be reached at 686-3206 or deminian@pjstar.com. Follow him on X.com @icetimecleve.
