PEORIA, Ill. -- Senior forward Leti Lerma (Muscatine, Iowa/Muscatine) scored a team-high 14 points on 6-of-8 shooting to pace three Bradley players in double figures, but preseason Missouri Valley Conference favorite Drake received 24 points from Lizzy Wendell as the Bulldogs topped the Braves 93-60 Friday night at Renaissance Coliseum.
 
Bradley (5-10 overall, 1-3 MVC) kept pace with the Drake (12-4 overall, 5-0 MVC) until midway through the second quarter.  Junior Anneke Schlueter (Ulm, Germany/Max-Weber Schule) opened the scoring with her 100th career three-pointer and went on to hit 3-of-5 from beyond the arc.  The score was knotted at 9-9 nearing the midpoint of the first quarter. 
 
The Braves made 8-of-14 from the field (57.1 percent) in the opening 10 minutes, but trailed 25-17 after the opening stanza. 
 
Another Schlueter three-pointer in the opening moments of the second quarter sparked a 9-2 Bradley spurt which trimmed the Drake lead to 29-26 less than three minutes into the period.  Lerma found Brewer in the lane for a hoop and sophomore Emily Eshoo (Naperville, Ill./Benet Academy) knocked down a three-pointer of her own.  Lerma came up with a steal on the next Bulldog possession and split a pair of free throws with 7:47 to play in the quarter to make it a three-point contest. 
 
Wendell scored seven points over the final 5:24 of the half, however, and helped the Bulldogs close the second quarter with a 15-4 run to extend the lead to 44-30 at the break. 
 
A 12-2 run midway through the third quarter gave Drake a commanding 63-36 advantage as the Bulldogs claimed their seventh consecutive matchup in the series with a 93-60 victory. 
 
"Drake does a good job of stretching you out," first-year head coach Andrea Gorski said.  "We tried to muck it up a little, but weren't able to get that done.  We can play better than we did today and we can shoot the ball a lot better.  Our kids played hard, we just need to be more aggressive on the defensive end." 
 
Lerma led three Bradley players in double figures with 14 points and also collected six rebounds in 28 minutes of action.  Freshman Chelsea Brackmann (New Berlin, Wis./Eisenhower) was limited to 17 minutes because of foul trouble, but added 12 points, eight boards and three assists.  Schlueter joined the pair in double figures with 11 points, while dishing out four assists and is now two three-pointers from pushing her career total into Bradley's career top 10. 
 
Drake shot 51 percent from the field with Wendell tallying 24 points, three assists, three blocks and seven steals.  Point guard Caitlin Ingle collected 12 assists to go with 10 points to help power the Bulldogs to their sixth consecutive win and conference-best 12th victory of the year. 
 
Bradley closes out a two-game home stand Sunday with a 2 p.m. game against defending MVC regular-season champion Northern Iowa at Renaissance Coliseum.