PEORIA, Illinois — Tarleton State heads to the Midwest to take on the Bradley Braves on Tuesday night at 7 p.m. in Carver Arena in the campus site portion of the SoCal Challenge.
 
The Texans (2-1) started off the season with an opening loss against 2019 National Champion, Virginia, before stringing together a pair of wins at FIU and in the home opener against UNT Dallas. The Braves enter the matchup 2-0 with a pair of overtime wins against UAB and Utah State.
 
Devon Barnes has been a pleasant surprise for coach Gillispie's squad. Barnes is the only Texan to have scored in double figures in all three games this season. He is averaging 14.0 points per game and leads the team in made threes (seven). He is a perfect 13-for-13 from the foul line, tied for the fifth longest streak to open the season in the nation. He leads the WAC with the longest streak this season, and the most made.
 
KiAndre Gaddy has turned it on in the past two games breaking his scoring career-high in back-to-back games. He notched his first career-double last Thursday night at FIU with 17 points and 14 rebounds. He was one of three players in the WAC last week to lead the way with 14 boards in a game. Gaddy then one-upped his performance with 20 points at home against UNT Dallas on Saturday night.
 
Jakorie Smith turned in the best single-game scoring performance in the WAC with 34 points and three made three-pointers against FIU. Smith finished the week with a 14.7 scoring average, eight made triples, and is averaging three steals a game.
 
Freshman Emmanuel Innocenti has started the last two game for the Texans. In his most recent outing, he posted a season-high eight points and 13 boards.
 
The Texans have had great contribution off the bench this season. Dating back to last season, Tarleton has had a double-digit scoring effort off the bench in each of its last eight games. In the season opener, Barnes led the team with 11 off the bench. Izzy Miles has contributed 10 and 11 off the bench in the first and third games of the year. Gaddy's 17-point performance came off the bench on Thursday against FIU. Dario Domingos made his Texan debut with 10 off the bench on Saturday night.
 
Coach Gillispie welcomed in the nation's most 16 newcomers to his Division I largest 21-man roster. In the first two games of the season, Gillispie only had seven of his 13 available scholarship players. Domingos returned for his squad on Saturday after having missed the first two games of the year.
 
Tuesday will be the first meeting between the two programs. The Texans are 1-1 against Missouri Valley conference opponents. Last year the Texans defeated Belmont before falling to Drake.
 
Bradley head coach Brian Wardle is in his 14^th season as a collegiate head coach. He started his career in the 2010-11 season with Green Bay. After five seasons with the Phoenix, he took over the Bradley program, where he is currently in his ninth season at the helm.
 
Tarleton State will have a six-day break before its first game of the SoCal Challenge in San Juan Capistrano, California against Austin Peay at 4 p.m. CT at JSerra Pavilion.