On New Year’s Day, disaster struck the Bradley women’s basketball program.
With the team riding a six-game losing streak and not playing a game for 12 days due to multiple cancellations, the Braves’ all-time leading scorer, Gabi Haack, went down with a season-ending knee injury against Illinois State. The three-time all-MVC first team player would have to sit out the rest of her fifth and final year as a Brave.
However, hope wasn’t lost, and 5-foot-4 freshman guard Caroline Waite from Ames, Iowa stepped up.
The freshman was the team’s leading scorer in Haack’s absence, scoring just over 13 points per game. She was one of only five freshmen in program history to lead Bradley in scoring and was also the top-scoring underclassman in the conference. Additionally, her 2.88 3-pointers made per game was the highest in the Missouri Valley Conference and fourth among all Division I basketball players this past season.
“We were in so many games I’m not sure we would’ve been in without her,” former Bradley head coach Andrea Gorski said.
A three-time all-state honoree, Waite is Ames High School’s all-time leading scorer and set the mark for career 3-pointers. She also holds the school record for most threes in a single season and holds the single-game scoring record.
That sharpshooting was on full display this season, as she led the Braves from beyond the arc by a wide margin. Her 72 made threes were 29 more than the next highest total, owned by former senior Tatum Koenig and her 210 attempts from downtown blew past Koenig’s 130.
“Shooting [is] the biggest part of my game, and it’s my favorite,” Waite said. “That’s what I work on most of the time I’m in the gym.”
The work paid off, as Waite captured the MVC Freshman of the Year, the third Brave to win the award and the first since 2019 when Lasha Petree took home the hardware.
Waite has always had MVC ties, as her mother Betsy played softball for Illinois State. Despite the pseudo-bad blood it caused between the two, Waite chose the Peoria side of the I-74 rivalry.
“Our facilities are really great and I felt at home when I came here,” Waite said. “The coaches just believed in me when a lot of other coaches didn’t and they made me feel special. I just wanted to be a part of this program.”
Waite put up 18, 15 and 11 points in the first three games without Haack, but that momentum was not sustained. She only managed six points per game in the next four outings, dropping her season total by two whole points.
“Everyone was keeping an eye on her,” Gorski said. “She had to figure out how to get shots off quicker; she had to figure out how to get to the rim. Especially after Gabi went down, she now had the top defending guard on her, so it was hard to get off threes.”
The points deficiency did not last long, as Waite rattled off five 20-point games in her next eight appearances, including three straight immediately following her scoring drought. She was even able to secure a spot on ESPN’s SportsCenter Top 10.
“She developed a nice floater and then actually attacked the rim,” Gorski said. “Being more crafty and just really adding that to her game was very impressive.”
On paper, Waite looks to be at the top of every opponent’s scouting report going into next season, the Braves’ first under recently hired head coach Kate Popovec. Looking forward, Waite hopes to develop another aspect of her game to help the squad get better.
“My goal is just to be a leader for our whole team,” Waite said. “[I want to] be a better communicator and defender and just be one of the best on our team with that.”
Taking home hardware as just a freshman, Gorski can see that Waite has a bright future ahead of her.
“She’s a winner,” Gorski said.
