Women’s basketball survives overtime to win exhibition game

Bradley women’s basketball played its first game against another team on Wednesday. In the final moments of an exhibition game against Saint Louis, Bradley avoided defeat.

Bradley took the lead early in the first quarter, holding a 15-point advantage at one point, but Saint Louis battled back, taking the lead in the middle of the fourth. The Braves, however, sent it to overtime, where they outscored the Billikens 10-4 to take the victory.

“I’m really pleased with our effort overall,” head coach Kate Popovec-Goss said. “I think today we saw how good we can be, and we also saw what are going to be our weaknesses.”

First-half offensive burst

The first ten minutes of the game ended 24-15 in favor of Bradley, with sophomore forward Ellie McDermid scoring seven and graduate guard-forward Tamia Perryman adding five more. The team had a 42.1 field goal percentage and shot four-for-six from the arc.

Once the halftime buzzer sounded, the Braves had a commanding 13-point lead, holding the Billikens to 11 points. Freshman guard Maya Foz had her best run of the game in the second, scoring five and providing two assists.

The story of the first half for Bradley was the bench, as 22 of their 39 points came from non-starters, including 12 from McDermid and eight from Perryman. In the rebound game, the Braves only lost by one, grabbing 18 boards to Saint Louis’s 19.

Close call for the Braves

The third quarter was filled with action, including the Billikens scoring 19 points and defending Bradley very well, only allowing nine points. In all of the madness, Foz went down cramping, leaving one of the team’s starters on the bench for the rest of the game.

“That third quarter in particular, to me, is really blaring because I think that’s where we gave them the confidence to get back into the game,” Popovec-Goss said.

“Maya will be fine, but she was cramping pretty bad, so I didn’t trust to put her back in the game,” Popovec-Goss added. “Especially being one of our ball handlers down [against] a team that we wanted to pressure, I thought we did a really good job.”

This chain of events led to an opportunity for sophomore guard Mya Wardle, the daughter of Bradley men’s basketball head coach Brian Wardle. The Eastern Kentucky transfer scored five points in the first 20 minutes, but came up clutch when overtime came around.

“Personally, this was a challenge for me tonight,” Wardle said. “Our other point guard went down, so I knew I had to step up.”

The Billikens took advantage of their momentum, taking a one-point lead with 4:48 left in the fourth. The Braves got the lead back with just over a minute left to play. Both teams tied at 64 had an extra five minutes to play.

Overtime offensive explosion

While Bradley as a unit had a rough patch, fifth-year guard Kaylen Nelson had her foot on the gas, scoring 11 points in the third and fourth combined. The team also mentioned there were good vibes on the bench considering what happened in the second half.

“When we came in the huddle going into overtime, it was super positive,” Wardle said. “I think our coaches do an amazing job of keeping us very grounded. They’ll get on us, but at the same time, they’re the ones that are going to fire us up.”

“And they said ‘we’ve been preparing for this’ and we have,” Wardle added. “They have given us close game situations all week. We’ve been preparing for something like this, and it was probably good for us to be in this type of situation and know that we can find a way to win.”

Saint Louis started overtime with the first basket, but afterwards, Bradley just kept scoring, only allowing four points themselves. Wardle scored five of the Braves’ ten points in those last five minutes, ending the game with an impressive 14 points and nine rebounds.

“I was really pleased with how we handled overtime,” Popovec-Goss said. “We took care of the basketball, we kept them off the free throw line and consequently, we made our free throws. And if you do those things specifically on your home court, usually good things are going to happen.”

Building confidence

With four days left until the regular season, the Braves found this exhibition game important in many ways, especially after getting the win.

“We really wanted to challenge ourselves in this exhibition because we want to have tape to look at and really see where we’re at and get a gauge as a team,” Popovec-Goss said. “And I think this is exactly what it gave us. We know that there are things that we struggled with last year and I think that overall, I’m really pleased with how we have improved in those areas.”

From the players’ perspective, putting on this kind of performance against a quality opponent in Saint Louis really means something.

“This win definitely gives us a lot of confidence,” Wardle said. “We can compete with a really good team in the A10, a really tough conference in women’s basketball, and for us to be able to compete and find a way to win I think gives us some confidence, but at the same time, I think it shows us we can still get get better and we’re just kind of scratching the surface.”

The Braves begin the regular season on Tuesday, facing NAIA school Judson at Renaissance Coliseum. The game tips off at 6 p.m.