Bradley cruised to a 77-55 win over Southern Illinois at Renaissance Coliseum to score its second win of the Missouri Valley Conference season.
WHO: The usual suspects keyed the Bradley attack, as junior Lasha Petree scored 23 points and senior Gabi Haack chipped in with 14. A strong cast of supporting juniors helped the Braves along as well; Tatum Koenig (10 points) joined in with double figures while Chloe Rice (9 points) shined in arguably her best game of the season.
Haack moved into ninth place on Bradley’s all-time scoring list with a three-pointer late in the second quarter. She now has 1,317 career points.
WHAT: The win advances the Braves to 6-4 on the season and 2-1 in MVC play ahead of tomorrow’s rematch against SIU. If the Braves can sweep the doubleheader with the Salukis, it sets them up nicely for a stretch that includes a road series at Evansville and home tilts against Loyola-Chicago, two teams that have established themselves in the lower half of a tough MVC.
WHEN: The Braves’ sixth win of the season came at a nice time, marking the first back-to-back wins for the team this season. The Braves opened conference play with a 76-51 loss at Drake on Jan. 1 before bouncing back to notch an 80-75 win the next day.
WHERE: Oh how sweet home is for the Braves, who are now 15-1 in their last 16 conference games at Renaissance Coliseum. The stretch dates back to a win over SIU on Jan. 20, 2019.
WHY:
- Bradley head coach Andrea Gorski on the Braves’ 15-2 start: “We got out to a good start. That certainly helped us. I thought our ball movement to start the game was really good. I thought we worked for good open shots. And, you know, just kind of took off from there.”
- Gorski on the Braves’ effort: “I would say that’s probably our most complete game of the year … [We] still had some stretches there that, you know, we fouled. We’ve got to clean those things up, but yeah, just proud of being able to put 40 minutes together, not panicking when we got in foul trouble.”
- Gorski on creating energy: “I’m telling you, it’s just different playing without fans … I feel like I need to put a cheerleading outfit and go out and do it. It’s hard, it’s tiring, we miss our fans, I’m not gonna lie … Now you’ve got to bring some energy tomorrow.”
- Petree on Chloe Rice’s 9-point outing: “She’s a really good, awesome offensive player in practice. She scores a lot. And we know she’s really good out there. It was really good to see her score out there. We were all cheering for her as well.”
NEXT: Bradley and SIU are scheduled to play again on Saturday at 4 p.m. on ESPN+.
