Bradley women’s basketball spent their Thanksgiving weekend in Fort Myers, FL, going one-for-two against Missouri and Abilene Christian.
The Braves started on Friday, facing a 5-2 Tigers team that had just won against Washington State three hours northeast in Kissimmee. Despite facing an SEC school, the women from the Hilltop kept the game close.
Bradley found themselves down only 16-14 after the first quarter after a lot of back-and-forth basketball and no real runs being made. Up to this point, the Braves shot six-for-14 from the field and made half of their three-point attempts.
Freshman guard Maya Foz scored half of the team’s first-quarter points, putting up 11 of her 16 points that day. Sophomore forward Ellie McDermid and junior guard-forward Claire McDougall grabbed the only other baskets in the first ten minutes.
Once the halftime horn sounded, Bradley was down three as fifth-year guard-forward Kaylen Nelson scored six points with McDougall, graduate guard-forward Tamia Perryman and freshman forward Kali Fortson rounding out the scoring.
In the second half, Bradley improved their offense, but Missouri did as well. The Tigers made their mark with a 24-point third quarter while the Braves had 20, widening the gap to seven points. The fourth quarter was a 19-19 tie, giving the Tigers a 73-66 win, but the lead was up to 14 with 2:36 to go.
Nelson ended the game with 26 points, including 20 in the second half alone. Foz, as mentioned previously, scored 16, and McDermid finished third in buckets with nine.
The Braves’ weekend didn’t end there, however. The next day, they were scheduled to face the Wildcats of Abilene Christian who won four of their last five before traveling to Florida. This time around, Bradley gave ACU their third loss of the season while earning their first away win of the season.
The Braves trailed again in the first quarter of the game, this time by six. Perryman led the team in the first ten minutes with six points; Nelson and McDougall followed right behind with four.
During the second quarter, Bradley cut the lead to one a couple of times, but with 20 minutes remaining, they were back down six and in need of a comeback. Nelson and McDougall both had six points, but the Braves needed more production to win.
That’s exactly what happened, but not in the third quarter. While Bradley did outscore the Wildcats 18-16 in the third, the offense wasn’t turned up to the highest level it could be. But both the offense and defense performed like the game was on the line, which it was, in the fourth.
The Braves scored 28 points in the final ten minutes of the contest while only allowing 18. The team shot 56 percent from the field and 40 percent from three-point range, showing how excellent their scoring can be down the stretch.
Bradley had four double-digit scorers on Saturday with Nelson scoring 21, McDougall adding 19, Perryman putting up 14 and sophomore guard Mya Wardle providing 10.
The win moves the Braves to 4-3 overall.
