DES MOINES, Iowa ? Senior center Ashley Chelleen turned in one of the best performances of her career, scoring a game-high 18 points on 7-of-11 shooting to help lead the Bradley women's basketball team to its first State Farm Missouri Valley Conference Tournament victory since 1997, as the seventh seeded Braves downed Missouri State 65-56 Thursday night in the first round of the MVC Tournament at the Drake Knapp Center.

The Des Moines, Iowa, native scored a game-high 18 points and added team highs of eight rebounds and two blocked shots to lead the Braves, who improved to 2-14 in MVC Tournament games all time. Senior Erika Nelson added 15 points and junior Devyn Flanagan was also in double figures with 10 points.

The victory ended a three-game losing streak for the Braves and a seven-game MVC Tournament skid that dated back to the program's only other MVC Tournament victory, a 53-52 victory against Missouri State in Springfield, Mo., during the 1997 tournament.

Bradley (12-18 overall) held Tahnee Balerio, the MVC's leading scorer at 18.9 points per game, scoreless for the first 26 minutes of the game and limited her to eight points. The Braves defense held Missouri State (7-21 overall) to 37 percent shooting.

Chelleen and senior Erika Nelson and Chelleen combined for 22 of the Braves 33 points in the first half, helping Bradley to a 33-21 lead heading into the locker room.

A 9-2 Missouri State spurt in the early moments of the second half, helped the Bears pull to within five points at 37-32 with 16:40 to play. Senior Jen Brown capped a 7-0 run with a jumper with 14 minutes remaining to push the Braves lead to 46-32.

Missouri State trimmed Bradley's lead to eight points (51-43) with 8:23 to go, before a Brown three-pointer sparked a 13-1 Braves run that put the game out of reach. Junior Devyn Flanagan scored six of her 10 points to highlight the Braves run.

Nelson pushed her season point total to 408, making her the first Bradley player since Heather Best in 1998-99 to score 400 points as a senior and she is the first Braves to top the 400-point mark since Sara Bailey in 2001-02.

Freshman Roxy Stiles led Missouri State in scoring with 15 points. Junior Tiff Terwelp added 12 points and a game-high nine boards, while sophomore Breton Wyett chipped in with 10 points to help pace the Bears.

Bradley advances to Friday's quarterfinals and will face I-74 rival and No. 2 seed Illinois State at 6:05 p.m. at the Drake Knapp Center.