PEORIA, Ill. – The Western Michigan women's basketball team earned a road win over Bradley 72-59 in the Renaissance Coliseum in their second game of a four-game road trip. The Broncos improve to 3-2 this season earning their first road win while the Braves fall to 1-3.
“The win felt awesome it was a really happy locker room after the game,” Head coach Shane Clipfell said. “The biggest part of this team is that we continue to make progress and it helps that we did win as well today but I liked our team's fight and our will.”
The game stayed close throughout the first half with the Broncos leading 32-29 heading into the break after senior Miracle Woods hit a mid-range jumper at the buzzer. There were six lead changes and four times the game was tied in the first half. The third quarter was a different story as WMU outscored the Braves 19-12 including a 14-0 run that lasted over seven minutes and carried over into the fourth. WMU outscored the Braves 19-8 in the third quarter. A big part of the Broncos offense was getting the ball in the paint, where they outscored the Braves 44-32.
“We talked about (scoring in the paint) a lot. We talked about it in practice, we talked about it before the game, we talked about it at halftime and every timeout.” Clipfell said.
Junior guard Meredith Shipman set a new career-high in points with 14, breaking her old record of 12 set earlier this season against UW-Parkside. She also tied her record in 3-pointers made with four, as she went 4-for-6 from beyond the arc. Senior Alex Morton tied for the game-high in points with 15 including 11 in the first half. Sophomore Teagan Reeves finished with six points, eight rebounds and a career-high five blocks. Woods finished with 13 points and six rebounds. Sophomore Najee Smith also scored a career-high nine points. Morton tied for a game-high with four assists while Reeves, Shipman and Jessica Jessing all had three assists.
As a team, the Broncos went 11-for-12 from the free-throw line and shot 52.8-percent from the floor while holding the Braves to 30.9-percent from the floor. In the first half, Bradley went 4-for-8 from 3-point range but the Broncos clamped up and held them to just 0-for-3 in the second half.
The Broncos stay on the road for two more games, starting Sunday Nov. 29 at IPFW and ending the road trip at Loyola-Chicago on Wednesday, Dec. 2.
