PEORIA, Ill. – Senior Leti Lerma (Muscatine, Iowa/Muscatine) turned in her sixth double-double of the year with 13 points and 10 rebounds, but Northern Iowa committed just six turnovers as the Panthers extended their win streak to nine consecutive games with a 72-53 victory over Bradley Sunday afternoon at Renaissance Coliseum.
 
Lerma moved up two spots on Bradley's career rebounding list, passing Heather Best (1995-99) and Roxanne Grabow (1979-83) to move into eighth all-time in rebounding on The Hilltop and also scored her 700th career point in the setback for the Braves.
 
Both teams got off to slow starts with the game scoreless for the first 3:30 of the contest and Northern Iowa held a 5-4 lead midway through the opening period.  Northern Iowa's Madison Weekly hit a pair of three-pointers during a 9-0 UNI spurt which was part of a bigger 13-3 run to give the Panthers an 18-7 advantage with less than one minute left in the first.  Bradley trailed 21-10 after the opening 10 minutes.
 
Northern Iowa (13-4 overall, 6-0 MVC) extended the lead to 14 points late in the second quarter, but a three-point play by Vanessa Markert (Mt. Sterling, Ill./Brown County) and three-pointer by Emily Eshoo (Naperville, Ill./Benet Academy) pulled Bradley within eight points (38-30).  Weekly, who scored 11 points in the second quarter, capped the scoring in the second with a three-pointer to give UNI a 41-30 halftime advantage.  The Braves were 7-for-12 (58.3 percent) in the second quarter.
 
Bradley (5-11 overall, 1-4 MVC) nearly matched UNI basket for basket in the third with the Panthers holding a 56-43 lead heading to the fourth quarter.  Northern Iowa scored the first four points of the fourth and opened the period with a 6-2 spurt to extend the lead to 17.  The Panthers earned their 10th consecutive win in the series with the 72-53 victory.
 
"They (UNI) are a good team," said first-year head coach Andrea Gorski.  "Today's outcome wasn't from lack of effort or not following the game plan.  Right now they are better than us, but we just have to continue working to close that gap by the end of the season and continue to improve. We played more disciplined today.  We battled hard; just gave up too many second chance opportunities against a good shooting team."
 
Lerma was the lone Bradley player in double figures, tallying 13 points on 4-of-9 shooting and grabbed a team-best 10 rebounds as she recorded her team-best sixth double-double of the year and 12th of her Bradley career.  Freshman Alona Johnson (Milwaukee, Wis./Riverside) added eight points, while matching a season-best with five assists.  Fellow freshman Chelsea Brackmann (New Berlin, Wis./Eisenhower) battled foul trouble throughout the contest, but turned in four points, eight boards and three blocks in 16 minutes of action. 
 
Weekly finished with a game-high 23 points to lead Northern Iowa, which had four players with 11 or more points.  Megan Maahs tied a Renaissance Coliseum record with six blocks and notched 11 points and 12 rebounds to help lead the Panthers.
 
Bradley opens a two-game road swing Friday with a 7 p.m. game at Wichita State.