the game against the No. 17 Sooners, as they lost 79-46. Photo by Anna Foley.
There’s just something about playing on the road for the women’s basketball team. Head coach Michael Brooks said when they travel, the team seems to have more of an attacking edge.
That edge helped boost the Braves past Chicago State Wednesday night 66-60, putting them on a two game win streak and improving their record to 3-3.
“Our toughness was key,” Brooks said. “I thought our rebounding was excellent. With a team that has that much athleticism and prides itself on its inside play, I thought it was a tremendous feat to accomplish what we did.”
Brooks placed a greater emphasis in practice on closing out games, and that practice paid off again on the road.
“Our ability to get stops in crunch time was huge,” Brooks said. “We had two or three stops with under a minute left, and those things are big. We hit our free throws as well. There were a lot of great things about this game, but for me it was about our focus on defense and rebounding.”
Despite a slow start to the game, the Braves were able to turn it on after a few early game adjustments. The women had to adjust to Chicago State’s 2-1-2 zone, which forced stagnant offense early on.
However, once Bradley found its stride, the women took control and never looked back.
The Braves, who have struggled immensely with putting the ball through the hoop this year, put together a respectable performance from the field. They shot 44 percent as a team and 71 percent from the charity stripe.
Sophomore Anneke Schlueter was the leading scorer, finishing with 14 points while junior Leti Lerma recorded her second straight double-double with 12 points and 12 rebounds.
“Our rebounding has really gotten a lot better throughout the year, and that can be attributed to Leti and what she’s been able to do,” Brooks said. “She’s pretty much been a walking double-double.”
Arguably the most intriguing takeaway from the game was how much better they executed on the road than at home.
“For some reason, they like this identity that they’re road warriors,” Brooks said. “When we’re on the road, I feel like we dive on loose balls that we have no business getting, and we get them. We fly out of bounds and over chairs.”
Brooks wants to find a way to duplicate that kind of “focus on being killers” at home.
“They have a different approach on the road, and we have to learn to bring that approach to home,” Brooks said. “They have to learn to play a little bit more angry, a little bit more ferocious at home.”
The women hope to find that edge tomorrow night as they host Illinois-Chicago at 1 p.m. tomorrow afternoon at Renaissance Coliseum.
