PEORIA, Ill. -- A Whitney Tinjum (Stacy, Minn./Chisago Lakes/Washington State) layup tied the game at 41-41, but Northern Iowa answered with nine consecutive points and went on to top Bradley 55-47 Sunday afternoon at Renaissance Coliseum in Missouri Valley Conference women's basketball action.

The Braves (5-15 overall, 1-8 MVC) limited Northern Iowa (12-8 overall, 7-2 MVC) to 27 percent shooting in the first half and 37 percent for the game as Bradley held a team under 60 points for the fifth time in six games.  Bradley had its own offensive struggles in the first half, however, with UNI holding a slim 20-19 halftime advantage. 

Freshman Vanessa Markert (Mt. Sterling, Ill./Brown County) opened the second half with a jumper in the lane to put the Braves in front and Tinjum had a put-back basket on Bradley's next trip down the floor.  A pull-up jumper at the free throw line by sophomore Anneke Schlueter (Ulm, Germany/Max-Weber-Schule) made it a 6-0 BU run to open the third quarter and gave the Braves a 25-20 edge with 7:36 to play in the third. 

The Bradley lead stood at 29-24 midway through the third after a Leti Lerma (Muscatine, Iowa/Muscatine) basket, but it was the final points of the period for the Braves.  A pair of Stephanie Davison hoops opened a 9-0 Northern Iowa spurt capped by a Madison Weekly jumper as the Panthers led 33-29 through three quarters of play.

A Tinjum three-pointer to start the fourth quarter made it a one-point UNI lead and Schlueter had another basket to put Bradley in front 34-33 less than one minute into the final stanza. 

Weekly hit a three-pointer to put the Panthers back in front and Northern Iowa's lead was 40-36 closing in on the seven-minute mark after a Weekly fastbreak layup. 

Bradley held Northern Iowa without a field goal for the next four minutes, however.  Lerma split a pair of free throws at 6:46 and she added a jumper from the wing with just under five minutes left to pull Bradley within one point at 40-39.  After Weekly split a pair of free throws, Tinjum had a driving layup to tie the game at 41-41 with 3:28 left on the clock. 

Weekly found Amber Sorenson for a UNI three-pointer and had a steal and breakaway layup to open another 9-0 Panthers run.  Davison followed a Bradley miss with a layup and knocked down a jumper in the lane after a Braves turnover to give Northern Iowa a 50-41 lead with 1:19 to play. 

A Markert hoop with 33.6 seconds left ended the UNI run and cut the Northern Iowa lead to 50-43, but the Panthers made 5-of-6 free throws in the final 25 seconds to close out the 55-47 road win.  The victory moved UNI into a tie with Missouri State and Drake for the top spot in the MVC standings. 

Tinjum led Bradley with 13 points, while Lerma added 12 points, two assists and one block off the bench.  Markert made her first career start in place of the injured Tamya Sims (Milwaukee, Wis./Oak Creek) and tallied eight points, one assist and two blocks. 

The Braves held Northern Iowa, which was averaging a conference-best eight three-pointers, to four triples.  In addition, Bradley matched a season-low with 10 turnovers, but had a season-low six free throw attempts in the loss which evened the all-time series at 34-34.

Weekly paced Northern Iowa with 18 points and was one of three Panthers to score in double figures.  Sorenson was 6-for-10 from the field and added 14 points, while Davison added 12 points and four assists. 

Bradley will open the second half of the MVC regular-season schedule and continue a season-long, four-game home stand Friday with a 7 p.m. game against Evansville at Renaissance Coliseum.