PEORIA, Ill. -- Nyjah White and Gabi Haack each turned in double-doubles on Senior Day and junior Lasha Petree scored a game-high 28 points off the bench as Bradley Women's Basketball closed out the regular season with a convincing 80-58 victory over Indiana State Saturday afternoon at Renaissance Coliseum.
Bradley (14-11 overall, 10-8 MVC) finished alone in fifth in the final Missouri Valley Conference standings and will face #4 seed Northern Iowa next Friday in a 2 p.m. quarterfinal at the Valley Championship in Moline, Ill.
White posted her team-best fifth double-double of the year, closing the contest with 15 points and a career-high 14 rebounds to go with five assists, one block and three steals. Haack, who had her first double-double of the year, had her double-double by halftime and finished with 14 points along with a career-high 13 boards. In addition, Haack was 4-for-9 from three-point range and moved into fourth in MVC history in career three-pointers, overtaking Missouri State's Kari Koch.
With four seniors in the starting lineup, Petree came off the bench for just the second time this season to score a game-high 28 points on 11-for-19 shooting. She scored her 1,300th career point in the process along with breaking into the top 10 in Bradley history in scoring, moving ahead of Carrie Coffman (1,313 points) and now has 1,323 career points.
After outscoring Indiana State (5-14 overall, 2-12 MVC) 37-4 in the first quarter in last night's series opener, Bradley got off to a slow start Saturday and trailed 15-12 late in the opening period. Haack sparked a 9-0 BU run with a layup and White scored four points during the spurt that helped the Braves to a 21-18 lead by the end of the frame.
Bradley was able to build a 10-point halftime advantage (35-25) thanks to a 10-0 run midway through the stanza. One of Haack's four three-pointers started the spurt that included a White hoop and was capped by a Petree triple.
Petree nearly outscored Indiana State in the third quarter, tossing in 10 of her game-high 28 in the third. She started a 9-2 BU run midway through the period with back-to-back hoops and her sister Mahri Petree later capped the spurt with a three-pointer as the lead ballooned to 22 points 54-32 with 2:34 to play in the third quarter as the Braves were able to cruise to the 80-58 victory.
Bradley swept the regular-season series from Indiana State for a third consecutive season and reached double-digit conference wins for a third consecutive year. In fact, the Braves have now won 39 Valley games over the last four seasons for the most league wins in a four-year stretch in school history.
For the second straight game, senior Emily March nearly posted a double-double (nine points & eight rebounds). Fellow senior Uche Ufochukwu added seven rebounds of her own to help Bradley to a 55-31 rebounding advantage.
Jasmine Elder paced Indiana State in scoring with 23 points.
Bradley heads to Moline, Ill., for the 2020-21 MVC Tournament, facing #4 seed Northern Iowa in Friday's 2 p.m. quarterfinal game.