Drake outscored Bradley 19-8 in the first quarter in Des Moines, Iowa, but Bradley didn’t get discouraged Thursday night. The rest of the game, the Braves shot 38.8 percent. The Bulldogs scored down the stretch, however, and took advantage of four free throw makes following a common foul and technical called on Bradley junior forward Nyjah White. She fouled out and Drake won 85-72.
With 7:58 in the fourth quarter, sophomore guard Lasha Petree stole the ball from forward Brenni Rose, charging down the floor to toss in a layup between two defenders. Bradley’s 65-64 lead forced Drake to burn a timeout. From that point on the teams exchanged leads, until guard Becca Hittner made four free throws to extend the lead to eight at the 1:43 mark.
Drake led by 20 points with 2:25 left in the first half and Bradley’s ability to fight back was impressive.
“The team played tough and didn’t give up,” head coach Andrea Gorski said in an interview posted to BradleyBraves.com. “Down the stretch we had ‘em and some mental mistakes and we can’t do that, you’ve got be more poised no matter what the call is.”
The Braves played with mostly a six-player rotation. Senior forward and reigning MVC Player of the Week Chelsea Brackmann did not play in the game and her minutes were picked up by fill-in starter junior Emily Marsh and freshman Veronika Roberts. Freshman Mahri Petree also played 21 minutes off the bench.
The elder Petree led BU with 20 points on 7-24 shooting. Sophomore point guard and lone Iowan Tatum Koenig tallied 18 points for the Braves while junior guard Gabi Haack scored 10 of her 14 in the final quarter.
Drake shot 41 percent from the field and picked up 29 points at the free throw line. It was led by Hitter (24), Kierra Collier (22) and Sara Rhine (17). The Bulldogs also won the rebounding battle 51-32. The Bulldogs recorded two double-doubles to the Braves’ none.
“I liked our defense. I mean, a team that scores 90 points at home with two minutes left are at 74,” Gorski said. “I really liked our effort especially in the second half, that was a gritty group we had out there.”
Bradley only committed 11 turnovers but could not hit shots early or down the stretch.
The Braves (10-3 in MVC) continue the Iowa road swing at UNI Saturday at 2 p.m. It will be a battle between the third and fourth place seeds in the conference.
