In the week prior to the women’s basketball season opener against the University of Illinois-Chicago, head coach Michael Brooks said the first two games would serve to define the team in the infancy of the season.
Now, following losses to UIC and 18th-ranked DePaul University, the Braves have to shake the early label of being an ‘inexperienced’ team.
“We’ve got to grow,” Brooks said. “Each of these first five games are for us to find ourselves before we come back home. It’s been a process.”
The Braves have an 0-2 record to start the year, losing to UIC and DePaul, by score of 71-43 and 101-77, respectively. Both of the teams Bradley has faced are squads that Brooks says are among the most experienced in Illinois.
“We played two very experienced teams,” Brooks said. “We played UIC, who won the Women’s Basketball Invitational (WBI)…[and] we didn’t come out and perform at all of what we’re capable of. We played extremely tough, extremely hard, especially starting four freshmen”
In the season opener against UIC, the Braves were led by Tamya Sims, who totaled 12 points on 3-8 shooting and was the first Brave freshman to record double figures in points since the 2009-2010 season when Katie Yohn and Olivia Allen did so.
However, Bradley could not overcome cold shooting, which included an underwhelming 7.1 percent from beyond the arc and a 43 point second half by the Flames, falling 71-43.
Against DePaul, the Braves rushed out to an early 21-12 lead over the Blue Demons, but the defending Big East Champions went on a 24-3 run from which Bradley could not recover.
A 21-4 run to start the second half pulled the Blue Demons away from the Braves, who had three players in double figures in Michelle Young, Charnelle Reed and Fantasia Vine, but also committed 39 turnovers.
“I think [DePaul] was [a good test], coming from our last game on Friday,” freshman point guard Madison Dellamuth said. “We just didn’t play well at all.”
Taking losses in the beginning of a season is easy to shake off, but the label of inexperienced is not.
With Big 12 powerhouse Oklahoma on the horizon, Brooks said that in order to rid themselves of early labels, the Braves need to keep playing teams like DePaul and learn from their mistakes quickly.
“We’ve gone from Big East to the Big 12,” Brooks said. “We’ve got to get seasoned as soon as possible… We don’t care if we win, lose or draw, we’ve got to get experience and we’ve got to play hard.”
