MOLINE, Ill. – Freshman Lasha Petree scored 10 of her game-high 19 points in the second half and senior Shunseere Kent added 10 points on the day, but Bradley Women's Basketball couldn't hold off a second-half surge from I-74 rival Illinois State as the Braves fell 61-55 Friday afternoon at the TaxSlayer Center in a Missouri Valley Conference Tournament quarterfinal matchup.
Bradley (20-10 overall) swept the regular-season series from Illinois State (19-11 overall) and was looking for its first MVC Tournament semifinal appearance since 2009, but Illinois State got some separation early in the fourth quarter of the tightly contested game and hung on for the 61-55 victory to advance to Saturday's 1:30 p.m. semifinal against Valley regular-season champion Drake.
Points were at a premium in the opening period, with both teams shooting under 30 percent and combining for 19 points. Bradley was 4-of-14 from the field (28.6%) and held Illinois State to 4-for-16 (25%) in the first with the Redbirds holding a 10-9 edge after the opening period. Five different Bradley players scored for the Braves in the opening stanza.
The Braves missed their first two shots of the second, before heating up to make five of their next six. Bradley broke up a 15-15 tie with a 7-0 spurt with freshman Ellie Spelhaug splashing home a three-pointer from the corner to cap the run which gave the Braves a 22-15 advantage. Senior Vanessa Markert started the BU run with a pair of free throws and later found fellow senior Shunseere Kent for a layup before the Spelhaug triple. Bradley ended up taking a 29-23 into the locker room at the half.
Illinois State chipped away at the Bradley lead, eventually pulling even at 33-33 on a Simone Good three-point play with 4:32 to play in the third. A Petree three-pointer put Bradley back in front only to have Paige Saylor answer with a three-pointer on the other end for the Redbirds to keep things knotted at 36-36. Illinois State grabbed its first lead since the first quarter with a pair of Goods free throws with 31.2 seconds left in the third to take a 43-41 lead into the fourth.
Viria Livingston got the scoring started in the fourth quarter with a layup and a friendly role on a long two-pointer by Katrina Beck gave Illinois State a 47-41 advantage in the opening minute of the fourth and forced Bradley to burn a timeout.
The largest lead for either team came with 8:20 to play as Illinois State built a 49-41 advantage on another hoop from Goods.
Petree's third three-pointer of the game cut the deficit to five and the Redbird lead was still five at 54-49 following a Gabi Haack three-point play near the three-minute mark. Bradley got back-to-back defensive stops, but the Braves also came up empty on their next two trips down the floor.
A put-back basket by Lexi Wallen extended the ISU lead back to seven (56-49) closing in on 90 seconds to play. The Redbird lead was once again at five following a pair of Emily Marsh free throws with 1:11 on the clock.
Illinois State was 5-of-6 from the free throw line in the final 46 seconds, however to push the lead to eight (61-53) and a Tatum Koenig layup with 5.6 seconds provided the final margin as the Redbirds advanced with the 61-55 victory.
Junior Chelsea Brackmann pulled down a game-high 10 rebounds as she broke the Bradley season rebounding mark of 324 set by Leti Lerma in 2016-17. Brackmann's 327 boards on the year rank as the 10th-best season total in MVC history.
Goods and Beck paced four Illinois State players in double figures with 15 points each.
Bradley shot 38.9 percent from the field for the game, with the Braves shooting 50 percent from the field (19-of-38) over the final 28 minutes of the contest after the 4-for-16 start to the day. Illinois State, which shot 35.1 percent in the game, took advantage of 18 Bradley turnovers and outrebounded the Braves 43-33.