Entering Sunday afternoon’s matchup with Evansville at Renaissance Coliseum, Bradley women’s basketball had lost 16 straight games – a brutal 79 day stretch that included a season ending injury to the team’s leading scorer, a shorthanded roster because of COVID-19 protocols and seven 20-point defeats.
But on Sunday afternoon, senior guard Tatum Koenig decided enough was enough.
“That was a senior who was not going to let us lose this game today, you could see it – there was no way,” Bradley head coach Andrea Gorski said. “I could tell in the second quarter, I’m like, ‘nah, Tatum’s not letting us lose today.’”
Led by a 23-point, eight assist effort from Koenig, the Braves defeated the Purple Aces 77-67 to capture their first win since Nov. 19 against Wisconsin.
“Going into today, I knew we weren’t losing,” Koenig said. “I wanted to put the team on my back and take on that role today, and I did that. But everyone else stepped up as well.”
Koenig helped lead the Braves offense to its highest point total since its first game of the season on Nov. 9, when the team posted 84 points against Wright State.
BU’s offense took a frenetic pace for most of the contest, but started the game slowly, falling behind 13-6 four minutes into the contest. From that point on, the wheels got turning thanks to back-to-back buckets from freshman guard Caroline Waite, which trimmed the deficit to two at the five-minute mark.
The Braves eventually took a 20-19 lead at the 2:29 mark of the first quarter, courtesy of a triple from Koenig.
Buckets were harder to come by for both sides in the second frame, but Bradley outscored Evansville 12-11 in the quarter to take a 40-34 lead into the half.
After the Aces cut the lead back down to 44-41, Bradley faced an expiring shot clock on its next offensive possession with 6:40 remaining in the 3rd. With two seconds left on the shot clock, Koenig drove to the left block and bounce-passed to Waite at the left wing.
Draped by Evanville’s A’Niah Griffin, the right-handed Waite snared the pass with her left hand and heaved a deep 2-point shot that fell through the net, sending the crowd to 334 into a frenzy.
The play was remarkable enough to be featured on Sunday’s edition of SportsCenter’s Top-10 plays, but it wasn’t enough for the Braves to hang onto the lead, as the Aces pulled ahead 48-46 at the 5:18 mark with a jumper from Griffin.
Later in the quarter, Koenig put the Braves back ahead by one with a made free throw, and junior Sierra Morrow cashed in a three to push the lead back to four for the Braves.
After leading by as many as nine points entering the fourth, Bradley struggled to contain Aces forward Abby Feit, who hit two shots – one at the 7:38 mark and another with 6:21 remaining – to trim the deficit back to three points.
Three points is as close as the aces would get down the stretch, though, as Bradley’s trio of Iowan starters – Koenig, Waite and freshman forward Abbie Draper – slammed the door by combining to score the team’s final 11 points in an 11-4 run to close the victory.
Bradley’s box score saw a striking amount of balance, as four of the Braves five starters chipped in 12 points or more. Behind Koenig’s 23, Waite scored 22, Draper chipped in 14 and Morrow added 12.
“[The balance] helped,” Gorski said. “And the game’s a lot easier when you shoot 45%… I’m just hoping that gives us the confidence to know that we can shoot the ball.”
The victory is the Braves’ first in conference play and improves the team’s record to 4-16 overall. Bradley will look for back-to-back wins for the first time in months when it travels to Valparaiso on Thursday for a 6 p.m. matchup.
According to Gorski, the victory makes her job of preparing for the next contest a little sweeter.
“You can tell them [the team is better than their record] until you’re blue in the face, but the game is about winning,” Gorski said. “This team, they deserve to win. High character kids, and they work their tails off.”
