SPRINGFIELD, Mo. -- One of the Missouri Valley Conference’s hottest teams continued its tear through first half of the season, as the Bradley Braves outlasted the Missouri State Lady Bears, 68-59, Sunday (Jan. 4) afternoon at JQH Arena to improve to 2-0 in MVC play and 11-2 overall. Michelle Lund burned the Lady Bears for 18 points by converting 6-of-11 three-point attempts, while the Braves’ defense limited MSU to just .328 shooting from the field for the game.
Skye Johnson scored six of her eight points in the final 2:13, starting with a key three-pointer as the shot clock expired to turn a 58-52 game into a nine-point BU advantage. Missouri State would get no closer the rest of the way, as the Lady Bears dropped to 4-9 on the season and 0-2 in Valley play for the fourth year in a row.
Raisa Taylor matched Lund’s 18 points to lead Bradley, which finished the day shooting .464 from the field. The Braves turned in a season-high shooting percentage for an MSU opponent from behind the arc, going 8-of-17 (.471) as a team from three-point range.
Behind Lund’s nine first-half points and .419 shooting as a team from the floor, the Braves took a 29-22 lead into the halftime locker room. Bradley jumped out to an early lead behind the shooting of Lund, who buried a pair of three-pointers in the game’s first six minutes. Four Missouri State freshmen accounted for all 22 Lady Bear points in the opening stanza, with Casey Garrison scoring five of MSU’s first seven points to help trim the gap to 9-7 shortly after Lund’s second trey of the contest.
But BU responded by outscoring MSU 16-6 over the next seven minutes to push its lead to 12 points. Lund’s third trey of the half extended the margin to 16-9 with 8:18 to go, and Sonya Harris and Taylor added a pair of baskets each to cap the run.
The Lady Bears, who shot just 30 percent from the field as a team in the half, went on a run of their own, scoring seven unanswered and nine of the next 11 points to close to within 27-22 with 0:57 left in the half before BU’s Monica Rogers knocked down a short jumper with 36 seconds to go to account for the halftime margin.
Jacque Griggs jump-started the Missouri State attack at the onset of the second half, recording the first four MSU points of the stanza, as well as four steals in the first eight minutes of play. But Bradley once again answered the Lady Bears’ threat, scoring nine of the next 11 points to reclaim a nine-point advantage.
MSU came right back, converting six straight free throws to close to within 40-37 at the 11:52 mark before Lund went back to work from long range, knocking down her fifth and sixth three-point field goals of the game over a two and-a-half minute stretch to help the Braves build their largest lead of the day, a 53-40 advantage with 7:22 to play. After a Rogers free throw with 3:56 left on the clock put BU up by 10, the Lady Bears made one final push, getting layups from Jasmine Malone and Garrison on successive possessions to pull to within 58-52. But Johnson’s heroics and BU’s stingy defense down the stretch made sure that was as close as the contest would get.
The Lady Bears struggled from the perimeter for the second consecutive game, hitting just 2-of-16 (.125) three-point attempts as a team.
Garrison turned in the fourth 20+ point effort of her freshman season, finishing with a game-high 21 points to go along with a career-high eight assists and three steals. Malone also finished in double figures, totaling 13 points, six rebounds and three steals.
Up next, the Lady Bears will hit the road for a pair of MVC match-ups, beginning Thursday (Jan. 8) with a 7:05 p.m. tilt against Creighton that will be carried live in Springfield by Mediacom (MCC-14). MSU will also battle Drake in Des Moines on Saturday (Jan. 10) before returning to JQH Arena to host Indiana State on Jan. 17.
