As park signs warn, it’s dangerous to feed bears, as they become comfortable and lose their fear to humans. The same could be said about gargoyles, as Bradley women’s basketball gave Missouri State a run for their money this Friday night.
“I just keep looking at everything that we did right and going ‘How did that one not go our way?,’” Braves’ head coach Kate Popovec-Goss said.
Falling at Renaissance Coliseum to Missouri State (14-7, 9-3 MVC) –-which has won six straight— Bradley (3-21, 0-13 MVC) led for three quarters but couldn’t finish the job as they lost 74-64.
The Bradley sophomore guard duo of Caroline Waite and Alex Rouse led the Braves with 19 and 12 points respectively, while junior forward duo Isis Fitch and Daija Powell led the Braves in rebounds with seven and eight each, adding eight points as well. Junior Ruba Abo Hashesh added six points and six rebounds.
The Bears started off on the right foot, as they went on a 6-0 run before Popovec-Goss took a timeout with 8:50 to go in the first quarter.
“I had to hype them up a bit and boy did they respond, 38 minutes and 50 seconds of really good basketball,” Popovec-Goss said.
After the timeout, the Braves, looking for options, left it to Abo Hashesh who beat the clock with a layup. A newfound energy coursed through Bradley as they forced two Missouri State turnovers, with Waite harvesting it into two successful 3-pointers to give the Braves an 8-6 lead with 7:28 to go.
The Bears retook the lead momentarily before an Abo Hasheesh layup returned the lead to the Braves making it 10-9. It was push and pull as neither team could really take a solid lead in a game where the lead changed nine times before the half. Bradley retook the lead 16-15 with 3:05 to go andextended it to 18-15 heading into the second frame.
“I thought we had a lot of confidence out there and we moved the ball really well,” Waite said. “I thought we played way better than we did last time, we came out and we rebounded, we held them to ten offensive boards and they averaged 17.”
Coming into the second quarter, Bradley stayed hot by shooting over 40 percent from the field while the Bears shot 33.3 percent in the same span.
The Braves kept the pressure constant as they kept the Bears in hibernation for the first three minutes of the frame, while Abo Hashesh, Powell, and sophomore Nika Dorsey fed the Bradley lead up to 24-15 with 7:42 left. Some more swapping of baskets between the Braves and Bears defined the second frame.
In the last three minutes of the half, Missouri State started finding their groove and cut the deficit to 30-25 heading into the locker room.
“They amped up some pressure and started to be able to get the ball in the paint a little bit more and they got in the glass,” Popovec-Goss said. “It went down to stops and rebounds and unfortunately we weren’t able to get that in the second half, the fatigue set in.”
Bradley’s defensive effort on the glass rebounds and Missouri State’s turnovers would be the defining factors of the first half as the Braves grabbed 17 rebounds in one of the bigger surprises for Popovec-Goss’ group.
Coming back from the break, the Bears started clawing back by shooting 8-15 from the field, their best shooting of the game. The Braves shot 7-9 in the third frame for comparison, but were able to keep tracking down boards from one of the best rebounding squads in the conference.
Driving towards the paint in the fourth minute of the game, Missouri State guard Aniya Thomas saw her shot orbit the rim and go out, a familiar situation for the Bears as they were missing some precise finishes to run away with the game.
With 2:52 left in the frame, the sophomore Waite found the open space in the paint and capitalized, scoring her 14th point of the game, beating her marks from her last meeting with the Bears.
Missouri State started to turn up the heat immensely as the clock started winding down, gaining 11 points to Bradley’s five. Two successful Bears’ free throws brought the game within one heading into the final frame with a 50-49 Braves advantage.
Missouri State tied the game up after an initial missed free throw from guard Paige Rocca was followed by a successful attempt. Waite put the Braves back on top with a jump shot before Rocca did the same to put the Bears in front 53-52. With 6:03 left in the frame, Missouri State took advantage of their trips to the charity stripe shooting 13-17 and growing their lead to 58-54.
Bradley was not done just yet, as three separate Braves kept the score within one point in the span of almost two minutes, heading into the final three minutes with a Bear advantage of 65-64.
Missouri State started to take a firm grasp of the game in the final minutes with a trio of layups compared to three straight misses from the Braves. Offensive struggles in crunch time buried the hopes of the Braves’ first conference win and left Bradley with a bittersweet feeling.
“We just gotta keep going, we’re going to get one soon, we’re all playing really hard and we’re all doing everything that we can. I can’t expect anything more,” Waite said.
Bradley will host Southern Illinois this Sunday at Renaissance Coliseum, tipping off at 1pm.
