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After wild day, Bradley advances to Hoops in Heartland finals for first time in program history

Lasha Petree shoots during the MVC tournament semifinals on March 13. Photo via Bradley Athletics.

It was a day defined by chaos and uncertainty unique to the 2020-21 basketball season. But in the end, the Bradley Women’s basketball team will be playing in the Missouri Valley Conference tournament finals for the first time in program history, defeating Loyola-Chicago 70-56 in the semifinals.

“Going into this game, we all had one goal and that was to win,” junior guard Lasha Petree said. “We didn’t care how we did it.”

As the Braves began their shootaround at 8:00 am Saturday morning, news broke of a positive COVID-19 test amongst the tier one personnel of the team, which includes players, coaches and managers. The news caused their original opponent, No. 1 seed Missouri State, to withdraw from the tournament in preparation for the NCAA Tournament. The original match-up was ruled a “no-contest.” Head coach Andrea Gorski later tweeted that there were no players or coaches who tested positive within the program.

“We were able to get settled down with all the uncertainty and rumors and all this stuff going on,” Gorski said. “They were disappointed. We were really looking forward to playing [Missouri State].”

From a player’s perspective, there was an uneasy feeling equivalent of the previous year’s happenings.

“We were like, what’s going to happen? Oh my gosh, is this really happening?” Petree said. “Once we found out we were playing Loyola, we got scout ready, we refreshed our memory on Loyola because it’s been a while since we played them, and we were ready to go.”

The team was led by Petree’s 24-point performance, followed in the scoring department by senior Gabi Haack with 16 points.

It was a fairly even first quarter between the teams. After Bradley jumped out to an 8-2 advantage to begin the game, Loyola stormed back to take an 12-11 lead at the 4:11 mark of the quarter. Haack’s 10 first quarter points and a buzzer-beating three-pointer carried the Braves to a 20-17 advantage at the end of the frame.

Both teams continued to trade buckets at the beginning of the second quarter. The Ramblers proceeded to pull within one at the 3:10 mark of the quarter. The Braves answered with back-to-back three-pointers from Petree and junior Tatum Koenig, which allowed them to pull ahead to a 31-25 lead at the 2:25 mark of the second frame. Two layups from Tete Danso padded the lead further as Bradley held a 35-28 advantage at halftime.

The Braves began to break it open to start the third quarter. A 3-point jumper from Petree gave the team it’s largest lead of the game 47-34 at the media timeout. Petree’s 10 third quarter points, along with sister Mahri’s four points, paced Bradley to a 49-34 lead heading into the final frame.

Bradley led by as much as 17 points in the fourth quarter as they held a commanding 58-41 edge at the 5:13 mark. But Loyola would not go away as they roared back to within eight on the heels of a 9-0 run over two minutes and four seconds. 

But it was too little, too late for the Ramblers as a Koenig three-pointer helped swing the momentum back to the Braves. Two free throws from Petree with 1:03 remaining in the game helped seal the game for the Braves, who are now one step closer to an at-large bid into the NCAA Tournament.

“That’s been our goal all year is to get to the NCAA Tournament,” Gorski said. “We have the talent to do it, we got the team to do it, and that’s what we’ve been playing for all season.”

Standing in the Braves way is conference foe Drake, the number two seed in the tournament. Bradley split its regular season series against the Bulldogs earlier this year. 

For the Braves, they will be at a disadvantage considering the mental and physical strain Saturday’s events imposed on them. Drake will be playing after a day off on Saturday.

“Our focus is just getting [our players] physically better,” Gorski said. “It’s full forward to Drake.”

Through all the Braves went through off the court today, Gorski is pleased with the team

“It’s tough to get to this point and be one of the last teams playing tomorrow,” Gorski said. “I just can’t tell you how proud I am for them to get through the rough times. And we got one more to go tomorrow too,”

Tip-off is scheduled for 4 p.m. tomorrow afternoon on ESPN+.

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