With 52 seconds left in the season opener between Bradley and Wisconsin, the Kohl Center scoreboard read 65-65.
Junior forward Ellie McDermid had just scored a layup to tie the game after trailing by 11 points at the start of the fourth quarter. The Braves had chipped away at that 53-42 deficit with three made shots from beyond the arc, two of them by junior guard Inia Jones, who led the team off the bench with 13 points.
The Omaha native was recruited by Bradley in 2024 but hadn’t played a single minute of college basketball until Tuesday because of injuries. In her first action as a Brave, she proved what her coaching staff and teammates already knew.
“She’s a star, and what a joy she is to coach,” Bradley head coach Chaia Meier said. “She loves to play basketball and she wants to be great. She’s just had some bad luck and I’m so happy for her that she finally gets to hoop, and she’s just going to get better and better.”
Wisconsin called a timeout, which allowed them to draw up a plan for a go-ahead shot with 28 seconds to go.
The Badgers connected on just their second three-pointer of the night to reclaim the lead, finding the net from a long way away at the logo in the middle of the court. Not too long after, an attempt to get those three points back missed and the Braves were forced to intentionally foul. Wisconsin hit three of their four free throws and the game ended 71-65.
“[Having] the game tied with 30 seconds to go, it’s just kind of a heartbreaker because we felt like we had done enough to be in it and have a shot,” Meier said. “We’re still feeling the blow of it because we felt like we could have taken that one, but we learned a lot and had a big challenge defensively and I think it helped us grow.”
Bradley held Wisconsin, who averaged eight three-pointers a game in the 2025-26 season, to just two-for-18 from beyond the arc, while also outrebounding them 39-33 and posting a better field-goal percentage of .448 to .443.
Not giving their opponents a chance to do what they do best was something Coach Meier went over with her players a lot in the days leading up to the matchup.
“We felt if we could make them take twos, we’d have a chance to be in it,” Meier said. “Of course, the shot that won the game for them was a three, but for the most part, we did it. I think we had a little bit of some panic and some rushing with their pressure, but that’s why you go play Power Four teams, because it exposes those things.”
The Braves kept it close early, taking a 7-6 lead with six minutes to go in the first quarter. However, the Badgers started to pull ahead, making a couple of free throws near the end to secure a 14-10 score after 10 minutes, which allowed the Braves to keep their mindset of staying in the present.
“Whenever you play teams where you’re declared the underdog, you know going in there that it’s going to be a big challenge,” Meier said. “I like to keep the time frames small, like we’re going to play these first five minutes until the media [timeout] and we’re going to compete for those five minutes instead of thinking over the whole game.”
Only 1:42 into the second quarter, sophomore forward Kali Fortson converted on a chance under the basket to give Bradley a quick 17-16 lead, but Wisconsin took advantage when they saw their opportunities and eventually went up by nine.
The Braves cut that lead to five going into halftime, and in the locker room during the break, Coach Meier went over everything she saw on the court to give the team the extra motivation needed to stay in it.
“I was like, ‘We’re right here, we’re in this, these are the mistakes we made,’” Meier said. “We felt like we were turning it over a little bit too much. They were slipping on us a lot and I didn’t feel like we were switching at the point of the switch, and I thought if we fixed that, we could contain them a little better.”
While Bradley did finish with a one in the loss column, against a Big Ten opponent like Wisconsin, Coach Meier likes to use the term “loss” quite loosely because of their great performance.
“When you’re looking at the big picture, it was a win for us,” Meier said. “Our goal was to go up there, compete and put ourselves in a position to have a chance. We knew they’d make some runs and our goal was not to get sad and keep up our fight, and we did that.”
The Braves continue the regular season on Friday, facing another difficult opponent in Northern Illinois, with tip-off at 6 p.m. at Renaissance Coliseum. While they will look to continue their reliable shooting from Tuesday’s game, Coach Meier talked a lot about defense when previewing the matchup.
“We’re going to have to defend in games because we’re going to shoot it a lot and shooting can sometimes be unreliable,” Meier said. “People have different ways of rushing you, so we’re not going to be able to always count on our threes right now. Northern Illinois, they have a good coach, they have a lot of new pieces and they’re going to play a little bit of a different style, so we have to be ready to bring it again.”
