EVANSVILLE, Ind. – Bradley used an 8-2 run to jump out to an early lead and never looked back as the Braves cruised to their fourth consecutive win with a convincing 96-53 victory Friday night at Evansville.
Junior Lasha Petree turned in her eighth 20-point game of the season and the 24th of her career, scoring a game-high 20 points to go with three steals and a block. Senior Nyjah White added 17 points of her own, while Gabi Haack scored 11 of her 13 points in the second half to help pace the Braves.
Bradley (8-4 overall, 4-1 MVC), which trailed a total of 2:38 in the last three meetings with Evansville, opened the contest with an 8-2 spurt. White scored the first four points of the game as she helped the Braves to a 13-4 advantage midway through the opening period. Bradley led by as many as 11 points in the first quarter and held an 18-8 edge 10 minutes into the tilt. After scoring a season-best 20 points last Saturday, White scored seven of her 17 in the first stanza.
Bradley managed to stretch the lead to 35-19 at the half after Petree followed up a three-pointer with a steal and breakaway layup, finishing with 11 points and three steals in the first half of play.
After shooting 38.9 percent from the field in the opening 20 minutes, including 3-for-15 from beyond the arc, the Braves caught fire in the second half. Bradley made six of its first seven three-pointers in the third and shot 57 percent overall in the period, taking a 66-33 lead into the fourth quarter.
The Braves put the game out of reach early in the third, using a 15-3 run over a 3:30 stretch to double up Evansville 50-25 nearing the five-minute mark of the third. Haack hit a pair of three's during the spurt and White also added six points to highlight the run.
Bradley was even more impressive in the fourth, connecting on 13-of-18 from the field (72.2 percent) and ended up shooting 25-for-39 (64 percent) after the halftime break. The Bradley bench combined for 42 points as the Braves cruised to the 96-53 for the team's eighth consecutive victory in the series with Evansville (4-6 overall, 0-5 MVC).
Petree moved up one spot on Bradley's all-time scoring list into 13th, passing Eileen Yerkes and now has 1,131 career points. In addition, Petree moved in front of head coach Andrea Gorski in career three-pointers at Bradley and is now tied for sixth in Bradley history at 149 career triples with Anneke Schlueter.
The Braves are 4-1 or better to start Valley play for the second consecutive season and sixth time in program history. Gorski has now been a player or coach in five of the six seasons Bradley has started league play 4-1 or better.
Bradley and Evansville will close out the two-game series Saturday with a 6 p.m. contest at Meeks Fieldhouse.