Women’s basketball defeats its demons in Carver Arena

On Nov. 6, 2023, then-junior Kaylen Nelson made her Bradley debut at the Renaissance Coliseum against Kansas City and scored 31 points. 

It was the seventh-highest point total in Bradley women’s basketball history. 

Since that moment, two years ago, she’s been through hell. An ACL injury kept her out after five games that season and, when she returned last year, it was clear she was playing her way back into form. 

But it seems Nelson has begun to exorcise her demons. 

In the Braves’ second game of the season against DePaul, Nelson scored 28 points on 10-of-16 shooting en route to a 78-64 win. 

“I’m so proud of Kaylen,” head coach Kate Popovec-Goss said. “Kaylen has been through a lot in her three years at Bradley. [She] took a chance on us out of the portal, tore her ACL five games in; was our leading scorer. Last year was a little bit up and down for her, just getting her step back and her body back after the injury, and I think that Kaylen just turned a corner with her work ethic this summer.”

“She’s a leader for us, and I just love to see that,” Popovec-Goss added. “To put up 28 points, it’s a result of what you’re doing in the offseason and I think the way that Kaylen has committed to her body [and] recovery leads her to have the confidence that she had tonight.”

Nelson’s performance came at a crucial time for the Braves. For the first time in three years, the women’s basketball team played at Carver Arena. Its 11,000 seats allowed the Braves to have a bigger turnout than usual.

“I think it’s a great opportunity to play back-to-back with the men just because the support has been continually growing for our program,” Popovec-Goss said. “Playing in RenCo, we love our crowd there; I think our fans have been incredible. But to be able to come here and have that energy in the gym is super fun.”

Beginning with buckets

The Blue Demons started the game with a lead, going up by five early, but Bradley went on a 14-point run soon after. DePaul ended up cutting a nine-point lead to four before the end of the first quarter, generating two late baskets in 30 seconds.

Nelson led the Braves with seven points, with sophomore guard Mya Wardle and freshman guard Maya Foz close behind at five and four points, respectively. This marked the start of a career-defining performance for Nelson.

“It’s great to start off with a bucket,” Nelson said. “Just being able to see how they call plays, we knew they were going to pressure a lot. So, we knew that if we could break their pressure, the paint would open up for us and we’d get a lot of paint touches. One of our goals is to try to get a lot of points in the paint.”

That’s what they did. 

Thirty-two of the Braves’ 78 points came inside the lane, with another 16 of them coming from second-chance opportunities.

The second quarter gave Bradley a scare. The Blue Demons tied the game up 24-24 with 8:11 left, but were unable to take the lead. The Braves took advantage of this, walking into the locker room with a score of 38-30 at halftime.

Once again, Nelson led the team with seven points. Junior guard-forward Claire McDougall followed close behind with five and ended the game with eight points.

Coach Pop credited the defense for the multiple runs they had during the first half, which helped them expand their lead.

“Our runs come from our defense and I think when we can find ways to grind it out and get stops, good things are going to happen for us,” Popovec-Goss said. “The focus always, for me, comes back to defense and offensive execution.”

“Sometimes the ball is going to go in, sometimes it’s not,” Popovec-Goss added. “But when you can string together stops, that’s what allows you to go on those types of runs.”

Shooting for the stars

In the next ten minutes, Bradley extended their lead to 14, but the big story of the third quarter came from Nelson. In the first eight minutes of the third quarter, she had five points and in the final two she made not one, not two, but three shots in a row from beyond the arc.

“I have a great support system. They see I’m open, they’re looking for me, they’re telling me to shoot the ball, so I’m gonna shoot it,” Nelson said. “It was a great feeling to have my teammates around to have my back.”

The Braves and Blue Demons battled back and forth in the fourth, but in the end, the Braves kept their 14-point margin and took the victory. Nelson’s 28 points were followed by Foz with 14 and Wardle with 13, with the latter leading Bradley in assists (8). Freshman forward Kali Fortson and sophomore forward Ellie McDermid were the top rebounders on the night, grabbing nine boards each.

Bradley moves to 2-0 after this win and returns to action on Saturday, facing Indiana University Indianapolis in their first road game of the year, followed by a trip to Western Illinois on Thursday. Even though they will be away, the team explained what a win like this does for their morale.

“It definitely puts us on people’s radars,” Nelson said. “I think that we’ve already been in that zone; people kind of saw what we were building last year. DePaul’s a great team, a historical program, so coming out and winning the way that we did definitely opens people’s eyes about Bradley.”

“We got IU Indy next, they’re a great team,” Nelson added. “They know who we were last year, but we got new pieces. And we can celebrate the win tonight, but tomorrow we’re gonna go into practice and it’s going to be right back to the next game plan.”