PEORIA, Ill. -- Bradley Women's Basketball scored the first 15 points of the contest and the Braves cruised to a 77-55 victory over Southern Illinois in the team's Missouri Valley Conference home opener Friday night at Renaissance Coliseum.
In a game that featured three of the top five active career scorers in the MVC, junior Lasha Petree tossed in a game-high 23 points in just 24 minutes of action to pace three Bradley (6-4 overall, 2-1 MVC) players in double figures. Petree scored 17 of her 23 points in the second half to help the Braves pull away down the stretch. Senior Gabi Haack, who moved into ninth in career scoring at Bradley, added 14 points of her own, while junior Tatum Koenig added 10 points.
Neither team had managed to reach the 70-point mark in any of the last nine games in the series and Bradley had its highest scoring output against Southern Illinois (5-3 overall, 2-1 MVC) dating back to an 86-68 home win on March 8, 2014.
The Braves nailed their first five shots from the field and opened the contest with a 15-0 run, keeping the Salukis off the scoreboard for the first six-plus minutes of the game. All five Bradley starters scored during the opening barrage and BU led 20-9 after the opening quarter of play.
Southern Illinois made a small run to open the second quarter, pulling within four points 22-18 after a 9-2 spurt that included four points from Abby Brockmeyer started the period. The Bradley lead was 28-22 with just under four minutes to play in the first half when the Bradley bench helped spark a 10-2 run.
With three Bradley starters on the bench with two fouls, sophomore Mahri Petree knocked down a three-pointer with 2:52 left to play in the half to start the run. Freshman Isis Fitch added a layup and junior Chloe Rice had one of her own. Haack helped cap the run with a three-pointer as the Braves eventually took a 40-26 lead into the locker room at the half.
Bradley's lead never dipped below 12 points the rest of the game as the Braves put the game away with an 11-2 run between the end of the third quarter and early stages of the fourth. Koenig knocked down a three-pointer with 1:39 left in the third to give Bradley a 55-39 advantage and Haack went the length of the floor for a fastbreak layup after a SIU miss. The Salukis got a hoop with 37 seconds left only to have Lasha Petree rattle off the next six points (including the first four of the fourth quarter) as the Braves extended the lead to 63-41 closing in on eight minutes left.
Lasha Petree posted the 22nd 20-point game of her career, going 7-for-8 from the free throw line. Haack passed Carrie Coffman (1,313) for ninth on Bradley's all-time scoring list and now has 1,317 career points in addition to moving into a tie for ninth in MVC history in career three-pointers (235). Rice matched her career-high with nine points off the bench on 4-for-5 shooting, while freshman Tete Danso tied for game-high honors with eight rebounds to help highlight play from the BU reserves.
The Braves committed a season-low seven turnovers and outrebounded Southern Illinois 37-23, while shooting 50 percent from the field.
Bradley and Southern Illinois close out the two-game series Saturday with a 4 p.m. game at Renaissance Coliseum.