Southern Illinois University
5-3, 2-1MVC
Bradley University
6-4, 2-1MVC
Salukis fall at Bradley, 77-55
01/08/2021 | 8:21:00 | Women's Basketball
The Bradley Braves opened the game on a 15-0 run to build a lead it never relinquished in a 77-55 win over the Southern Illinois Salukis in Missouri Valley Conference play Friday night inside Renaissance Coliseum.
After the Braves raced out to its early lead, SIU outscored Bradley, 20-9 over the next 10 minutes of play to get to within four, 24-20 with 6:46 to play in the first half. The Braves, however, closed the half with a 15-5 spurt to push its lead back to double-digits, 40-26.
"We got off to a really bad start," eighth-year head coach Cindy Stein said. "We weren't tough enough today. They threw the first punch today and we never recovered. We just kept chasing after that first punch. We've got to do a better job of executing our stuff. Bradley took it at us and we weren't ready for it."
SIU's shots just didn't fall in the first half. The Salukis shot 31.6% (6-of-19) from the field in the first 20 minutes of play and were just 2-of-8 from three-point range. Southern rebounded to shoot 45-percent (9-of-20) from the floor and 50-percent (3-of-6) from behind the arc in the second half but it was too little, too late. Bradley, on the other hand, fired on all cylinders offensively, as they shot 54.5-percent (18-of-33) from the field in the first half and 50-percent for the game.
"We didn't defend like we were suppose to and we didn't execute our game plan tonight," Stein said. "We are going to go back to the drawing board, see what we did well and make some adjustments. It's hard because we are a much better team than we looked. Our freshmen looked like freshmen. I thought Abby and Makenzie played about as well as they could coming off of being out."
The Braves showed why they are considered one of the favorites to win the Missouri Valley Conference, as they got sizable contributions from their returning All-MVC performers Gabi Haack and Lasha Petree. The two combined for nearly half (37-of-77 points) of Bradley's points, as Petree went for a game-high 23 points while Haack added 14 points and six rebounds.
Makenzie Silvey led the way for the Salukis, as she scored 13 points on 4-of-7 shooting. Payton McCallister reached double figures for the third-straight game, as she added 10 points, three rebounds and two steals. Rachel Pudlowski chipped in nine points and four boards while Abby Brockmeyer tallied seven points and eight rebounds. Southern's upperclassmen accounted for 50 of SIU's 55 points in the loss.
"We've got kids that are a little inexperienced that we need to continue to get better," Stein said. "This one is on me- we weren't prepared like we should've been. We will do everything we can to win tomorrow."
The Salukis will look to get back to their winning ways tomorrow against the Braves at 4 p.m. inside Renaissance Coliseum.
