The women’s basketball team has endured a rough winter break.
From the day the students went on break, Dec. 18th, to the day they returned to campus, Jan. 19th, the Braves tallied a 2-6 record. Their only two wins in that time came against Lipscomb University and Missouri Valley Conference opponent Evansville.
Their losing streak continued into the start of MVC play. In their most recent game against Drake University, the Braves fell to the Bulldogs 97-77. The loss dropped the Lady Braves record to 4-14, 1-6 in MVC conference play and extended their second longest losing streak of the season, which is now at five games.
The loss also put the Braves on pace for their worst regular season finish since the 1999-2000 season, when the Braves finished a dismal 6-20.
“With our season, we’re not where we want to be,” said Coach Michael Brooks, “We’ve had some lack of confidence that led us to not performing up to our abilities at this point.”
Key injuries also played a part in the rough stretch of games for Bradley, as seniors Kelsey Budd and Alyson Spinas-Valainis and junior Michelle Young all dealt with injuries. Young, who was averaging 16.4 points per game, was the Braves’ leading scorer.
“You can go down the list, and that’s half our team right there,” said Brooks, “a couple of unfortunate things happen with concussions, broken fingers, things like that put us into a bind.”
However, the season is far from over, as seven of the remaining 11 regular season games are home games. All of those games are conference games, and Brooks expressed his optimism for the remaining contests.
“We’ve got some time to get things turned around,” said Brooks. “We’ve got to have a great showing, any time we approach a week we have two games at home, our job is to win two at home, and when we have two on the road, our job is to split on the road. If you can do that, you put yourself into a good position to be at the top of the conference.”
Bradley returns home tonight at 7 p.m. against Indiana State, and then remain at home Sunday as they take on Missouri Valley Conference rival Illinois State at noon.