The Bradley women’s basketball team closed out their final weekend home stand of the season with a win and a loss.
The Braves started the weekend with a dominating Friday win over Evansville, but faltered Sunday against Indiana State.
On Friday, Bradley started slow against the Purple Aces, a team looking for their first conference win. At the half, Evansville led 31-30 thanks to seven three-pointers to Bradley’s zero.
Bradley came out of the locker room on fire as they scored 42 points in the third quarter. The 42-point third quarter was followed with a 20-2 fourth quarter in favor of the Braves, for a final score of 92-47.
Senior forward Vanessa Markert, who scored 21 points and also tacked on four blocks, led the Braves in their success. Joining Markert in double figures was senior guard Anneke Schlueter with 19 points.
Sunday’s game against Indiana State was an opposite start for the Braves, as they shot the lights out of the gate and led 10-1 less than three minutes into the game. Freshman guard Gabi Haack led the Braves with two three-pointers during this stretch.
The Braves took an 11-point lead into the second quarter, but took their foot off the gas and let the Sycamores back into the game as the Braves led 39-35 at halftime. Haack said the Braves came out ready to play.
“We came out with a lot of energy to start the game, and that led to us having such a good first half,” Haack said.
But that energy did not last, as they allowed the Sycamores to take the lead from them in the fourth quarter and Indiana State hung on to win 74-70.
The Braves allowed 12 offensive rebounds and shot 61.9 percent from the free throw line. Head coach Andrea Gorski said she was disappointed with how her team performed in these two categories.
“It was a big letdown,” Gorski said. “If we control what we can, which is rebounds and free throws, then we win that game.”
Haack led the Braves with 19 points and eight rebounds while Markert also had 16 points and nine rebounds.
The Braves have lost four of their last five games and now only have three games remaining in the regular season. According to Gorski, her team struggles to win games due to mental weakness.
“We have to be a mentally tougher team,” Gorski said. “Mental toughness has been an Achilles heel of ours all season. We lose focus when they make a little run, and then we forget to box out, or we don’t make our free throws.”
The Braves now sit in 7th place in the Missouri Valley Conference with a 6-9 record and a 12-14 record overall. The Braves are in need of a win this weekend if they would like to avoid the play-in games in the conference tournament.
“We have to come out with the energy we had in the first half of this game if we want to win next week,” Haack said.
The Braves will travel to Iowa for their last road trip of the season against Drake at 7 p.m. tonight and Northern Iowa at 2 p.m. on Sunday.
