It was a tale of two halves for the Bradley women’s basketball team against the University of Missouri-St. Louis according to head coach Michael Brooks.
Luckily for the Braves, the game was never in doubt.
After shooting a paltry 34 percent from the floor against McKendree University, Brooks saw his team bust out the big guns and shoot 50 percent against UMSL.
“I thought that was our brand of basketball,” Brooks said. “We forced a lot of turnovers, we shot well, we attacked, we shared the ball. I really felt like we played cohesive basketball.”
The game was knotted at 12 in the first quarter with about three minutes left, when the Braves unleashed relentless dominance on the Tritons.
Freshman point guard Gabby Green, who got her first action as a Brave against UMSL after recovering from a concussion, began a 12-2 run with a layup.
“Once we really get into [our offense] and once we get flowing and try to make it perfect, a lot of teams are going to have a hard time guarding it,” Green said.
The Braves went into the locker room with a 43-23 lead. However, the second half was where Brooks said the team wavered.
But on offense, statistically, they played better than the first half.
Bradley saw its field goal percentage increase from 42 percent to 60 percent but were hampered by sloppy play as they had 11 of 19 total turnovers in the second half.
“We have a saying, ‘No one out-works us,’” Brooks said. “I really felt in the second half, we were on the verge of not committing to the principles. I just have a little bit of a bad taste in my mouth right now because I wanted to finish with our second group a little bit harder.”
Brooks also said some of the disheveled play was due to some experimenting on the sidelines.
“[We] ran a lot more combinations,” Brooks said. “We really allowed some different pieces to come and play. I didn’t feel like they were sound and as solid in our principles as they needed to be.”
Green, who finished with five points and two assists in 14 minutes, often found herself paired with senior guard Kat Yelle, who also finished with five points on the afternoon.
“We go in and out with the wing and lead, we’re a good combo,” Green said. “Even though we’re both leads, we can play together, and all together [the] team takes in with it.”
Brooks said he was pleased with how Green played in her first collegiate game.
“I thought [Green] and Emily [Eschoo] played well as freshmen,” Brooks said. “[But] they’ve got to get a little more comfortable in terms of the speed of the game.”
Brooks also said Green’s counterpart, Yelle, ran the point more aggresively from an offensive stand point in her second game in a Bradley uniform.
“I like it when she’s in attack mode,” Brooks said. “She looked to score more today, she looked to attack first and then distribute, which was nice.”
The Braves are on the road to start the season today, traveling to Michigan to take on Detroit University.
Brooks said the one major improvement he wants out of the team is for them to be able to finish, which is something his teams have lacked the last two years.
“We’ve got to extend our lead in the third and fourth quarters,” Brooks said. “We’ve got to stay consistent with our principles throughout. I love how we started the game, our focus and our intensity. One of the things a team has got to develop is a killer mentality. A cut throat mentality that when a team is down by 20, then you make them down by 30. You come out the first five minutes and you take it to them.”
