AUBURN HILLS, Mich. -- Bradley coach Jim Les thought the hug was for him.

When he stepped out of his locker room to walk to the media room to address the media after his team’s 77-73 victory against Kansas, Les’ wife Jodi stretched her hands wide and instead of hugging Les, hugged his star player Marcellus Summerville, who was right in front of the coach.

Summerville deserved the hug from Les’ wife, considering he had just poured in 21 points and grabbed seven rebounds. Summerville connected on five of nine three-pointers and played a team-high 37 minutes. Les eventually got his hug from his wife after Summerville.

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Kansas falls to Bradley

One year later and, again, the Kansas men's basketball team is returning to Lawrence. Instead of preparing for another round in the NCAA tournament, the players will be sitting on their couches, watching the games on TV.

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Les said after the game that he was proud of Summerville and his effort during the last month of the season.

“Marcellus has such a big heart,” Les said. “The last three or four weeks, he has put us on his back and just carried us. He just played so well and played so hard. It’s a privilege to coach him.”

Summerville did all of his damage in the first half from beyond the three-point line. He connected on 3-5 shots and had nine points in the first half.

His first three came at the 13:20 mark of the first half and stretched Bradley’s lead to 13-6. Guard Daniel Ruffin penetrated into the lane and kicked it out to Summerville who hit the shot.

Kansas started the game with freshman forward Julian Wright guarding Summerville, but had trouble containing him. Kansas coach Bill Self then switched and had freshman guard Brandon Rush guard Summerville.

Nothing seemed to work as the senior forward from Peoria hit big shot after big shot.

“We had a lot of trouble locating him in transition and he kept getting open,” Rush said. “He just hit so many big shots, it almost didn’t matter how we guarded him. He was just on fire, he was nailing everything. It was frustrating.”

Summerville hit his first shot in the second half with Bradley leading by 11 points. It was immediately following a media timeout and Summerville hit another three-pointer to stretch the lead to 12.

After Rush hit a three-pointer to again bring the lead back to 11 points, Summerville hit another jump shot to stretch the lead to 13 points.

Summerville said he knew Kansas was going to make a run in the second half and Les talked at half time about countering every punch Kansas made.

“We knew they were going to fight in the second half and come back,” Summerville said. “We just had to sustain our lead and play smart ball. Someone had to hit the big shots, and our guards just kept giving me the ball.”

After Kansas cut into the lead again, and chopped it down to a single-digit game, Summerville once again came through for Bradley. This time Summerville did it inside with a dunk off a pass from guard Will Franklin.

Again with Kansas trying to chip away at the lead, this time cutting it to seven points, Summerville hit a three-pointer again to stretch the lead back to 10 with 8:18 to play in the game.

Les said he put two words up in the locker room at half time for his team to remember, composure and patience.

“I think we did a good job of playing composed and staying calm against a great team,” Les said. “This team just played so well, I’m happy for everybody in that locker room.”