The Bradley women’s basketball team hit the road for a weekend trip to the Hawkeye State, facing conference foes Drake and Northern Iowa.
The Braves had recently returned home to Renaissance Coliseum after a four-game away stretch, defeating Indiana State by five. Going into their next few games, head coach Kate Popovec-Goss said that this would be “the actual toughest road swing that we have,” but they still made a contest out of both their matchups.
Despite Drake scoring first, Bradley went on a 7-0 run to take the lead halfway through the first quarter. Tied at 9-9, the Braves scored another seven unanswered points, which eventually led to an 18-11 score 10 minutes into the game.
Graduate guard-forward Tamia Perryman hit two shots from beyond the arc to start the game, and fifth-year guard-forward Kaylen Nelson added another five points. Bradley shot 60 percent from the field, but they wouldn’t replicate that success until quite late in the game.
Sophomore forward Ellie McDermid led the team with four points in the second quarter, which made up a rough sequence of events for the Braves offensively. On the defensive side, it wasn’t looking much better, as Drake kept scoring and scoring until they took a 32-30 lead, which they kept with them into halftime.
The result of the third quarter was back-and-forth play for most of the first eight minutes, but Bradley found themselves on top by three after McDermid hit a jumpshot and sophomore guard Mya Wardle and Nelson hit consecutive three-pointers.
Both teams ramped up their offense in the final quarter, with the Braves outscoring the Bulldogs 22-18 with help from freshman guard Maya Foz. Her 11 points rocketed her to the top of Bradley’s scoring chart and she finished with 17 altogether. And in the end, this helped them retain their win streak, 71-64. Nelson and McDermid followed closely behind with 15 and 14 points, respectively, and Perryman ended the game with 11.
Two days later, Bradley faced the now 9-8 UNI, who are ranked third in the Missouri Valley. This was a historically important game for the Braves, who haven’t won in the Panthers’ home arena since 2004.
Tied at 21-21 after the first quarter, both teams made half of their shots from the field. Perryman found her form right away in this one, scoring 10 of her 13 total points. But whenever Bradley made some ground, the Northern Iowa offense overpowered them.
Once again, both sides were equal on offense. Except this time, the second quarter ended with the Panthers in the lead. The Braves were still only down by one and Nelson had a 10-point quarter of her own, but the team stayed at the same production level throughout the second half.
In the third quarter, Northern Iowa started with a 7-0 run, and at one point, Bradley was down by 11. However, they dug themselves out of that hole and ended the period with only three points separating the two teams. Nelson, Foz and Perryman had a total of 12 points, with McDermid, sophomore guard Micah Cooper and senior forward Amy O’Hara scoring the other six.
The final 16 Bradley points came from Foz (8), Nelson (5) and sophomore guard Caitlin Washington (3), but the Panthers scored 16 points in the fourth, too, and a missed three-pointer from Perryman clinched the victory for UNI. McDermid, who won Busey Scholar-Athlete of the Week honors, totaled 23 rebounds across both games, including a double-double against Drake.
Bradley is back at home once again to play Valparaiso on Friday at 6 p.m. and UIC on Sunday at 2 p.m. for National Girls & Women in Sports Day.
