Not only did Bradley women’s basketball grab a win against Belmont on Sunday, but they also did a big promotion for a worthy cause.
In 2020, head coach Kate Popovec-Goss’s niece passed away from a pediatric brain tumor, leaving her family heartbroken. Since arriving at the Hilltop, the coach has honored her niece’s memory by hosting the annual “Be Bold, Go Gold” promotion to raise awareness of the fight against pediatric cancer.
“I’m really privileged to have the platform that I do as a women’s basketball head coach,” Popovec-Goss said. “To be in a great environment and community like Peoria and to just be able to share the message and share Melina’s name – she means the world to my family; she means the world to me.”
“To be able to, first of all, keep her memory alive, but second of all, just to have a platform to share that our children need us,” Popovec-Goss added. “Pediatric cancer research is severely underfunded, and our children deserve more than that. But also to have a platform and the opportunity to invite people to a game to come and have fun, especially those that have been touched by pediatric cancer in their lives, really means a lot to me.”
The team also honored one of their managers, Savannah Jost, a pediatric cancer survivor, before and after the game. More than half of the crowd in the Renaissance Coliseum sported gold-colored shirts, including the players, who are just as passionate about the cause as their coach.
“It means so much to us. It’s a very emotional time,” fifth-year guard-forward Kaylen Nelson said. “A lot of our teammates have relatives who have gone through any type of cancer, and it means a lot to us and our fans. We’re playing for a lot more than just ourselves, and the win makes it emotional and so much more worth it, to be out there fighting for something more.”
In their previous matchup against the Bruins in January, the Braves lost 78-57 to the top team in the Missouri Valley Conference at the time. Now, exactly 51 days later, they finally got their rematch.
“Honestly, we really didn’t even talk about that because I think we learned a lot from that in that weekend,” Popovec-Goss said. “We really challenged [the players] after that loss to go in and change their mentality. That weekend, even though it was two losses, it was a huge turning point for us because we recognized how we need to compete in order to compete with the best teams in the league.”
Bradley did start out on the wrong side of the scoreboard, letting Belmont score early. The Bruins went on a 9-0 run in the first four minutes, with most of those scores coming from in the paint. The Braves responded by putting up six unanswered points of their own, but a free throw and a three-pointer gave Belmont a 13-6 lead.
While the offense had its rough patches, going three-for-14 from the field and missing all four of their attempts from beyond the arc, Bradley was able to rely on the strength of its defense.
“First of all, I just thought our defense was incredible,” Popovec-Goss said. “We held them to 13 points in the first quarter. Belmont’s a really good offensive team – one of the best in the league – so I knew our defense was there, and I liked our shot selection. I didn’t think we were really taking bad shots; we just weren’t making them.”
This led the Braves to start making shots in the second quarter, scoring 18 points while going on an 11-point run early in the quarter. And they didn’t trade in their defense for it either as they held the Bruins to five points, with most of them coming from the free-throw line.
Bradley improved their field goal percentage from 21.4 percent in the first period to 53.3 percent in the second. Through 20 minutes, Nelson led the team with ten points, with freshman Maya Foz following closely with six and four more from senior forward Amy O’Hara.
“We talked in our media timeouts, talked in our huddles about coming out and punching first quarter, second, third and fourth,” Nelson said. “That’s always the message. Belmont’s a good team, so you can’t give them any room or confidence early. If we want to compete, then you have to do it from the start, and I felt like that’s what we did.”
Shades of the first quarter came in the third as well, with Belmont scoring seven straight points to start. Only down by one, the Braves completely countered that seven-point run, using their presence in the paint and a couple of fast breaks to end the quarter, keeping their six-point lead.
“At the end of the day, I told them at halftime, ‘guys, this is a good team. They’re not just gonna fall down and die,’” Popovec-Goss said. “They’re gonna come out here and make a run. That’s how basketball happens. I took a timeout to stop a run and just make sure our kids get an opportunity to come out and execute.”
Meanwhile, Belmont slowly chipped away at the Bradley lead. When the Braves scored a basket, the Bruins scored two more almost every time. Only up by one with 2:15 on the clock, Bradley never gave away the lead. Nelson hit a jumper in the lane, and even after Belmont made a free throw, both defenses locked in.
In the final four seconds, the Bruins had to foul and the Braves had to miss their free throws if they were to win. Nelson and graduate guard-forward Tamia Perryman went one-for-two each, making it a two-possession game.
The buzzer went off, but the referees signaled there were still 0.9 seconds left after a timeout. The buzzer went off a second time, but another timeout was called with just 0.4 seconds to go. Finally, the third time was the charm, and Bradley walked out of RenCo with a 51-47 win.
“It was great. We were cracking jokes, kind of laughing about how we wanted the game to hurry up,” Nelson said. “Even with this win, we still have a lot to work on. We still have a lot to learn from this and have to figure out ways to extend the lead rather than putting ourselves in positions where we have to rely on that free throw and a big stop.”
With only three games left of the regular season, the Braves take their final road trip to the University of Illinois-Chicago on Thursday. With this win and the earlier home loss to Murray State, they will take a lot into their game against the Flames.
“[When] you play with that level of toughness, we can go beat anyone in this league, and I don’t care how we have to do it,” Popovec-Goss said. “The one thing I talked about to our girls is it goes so fast, and we just have to have fun and enjoy it. So these last three games, I want them to enjoy it; I challenged them to choose joy today, and they did.”
