ST. CHARLES, Mo. ? Indiana State received an inspirational effort from its three seniors as well as a career-high 15 points from freshman Brittany Schoen as the Sycamores fell 70-49 to the Bradley Braves in the quarterfinals of the State Farm Missouri Valley Conference Tournament in front of 1,423 fans at The Family Arena.
The Sycamores end their season with a 14-16 mark while Bradley improved to 21-9. The fifth seeded Braves will take on ninth seeded Evansville in the first semifinal tomorrow (March 14).
“I'm a little disappointed, obviously with the outcome of the game, but I am in no way disappointed with this team,” head coach Jim Wiedie said. “What we've been through this season, the injuries we've had, the players that we have lost, this is probably the most gratifying season I've ever had as a head coach.”
Schoen was 5-of-12 from the 3-point line in posting a career-high 15 points for the Sycamores.
“Well I figured they were not going to drop zone on us like they did at home, because as soon as they did, we took over,” Schoen commented. “My teammates set up screens, and I give all the credit to them.”
Leah Phillips, playing in just her third game of the season against a Valley opponent, scored six points off the bench. She hit her first shot of the game with 17:13 left in the first half to knot the game at six points and helped key an important second half spurt which trimmed the Bradley advantage down to a second half low of seven points.
Trailing 47-33 with 11:33 remaining in the game, senior Kara Schilli hit a free throw to make it 47-34. Phillips then hit her second triple of the game to make it 47-37 with 10:40 left and Schoen closed the 7-0 spurt to make it 47-40 with 9:58 on the clock.
Bradley called a time out to stem the tide and Jenny Van Kirk delivered with her only points of the game to stretch the lead out to 50-40.
The Braves finished the game on a 23-9 run to earn the victory.
Schilli, also playing in her final game scored eight points and was 4-of-5 at the free throw line with six assists and three steals.
Tiffany Reida also played her final game as a Sycamore after returning to the active lineup last week on the Creighton and Drake road swing. Reida drilled her first points since returning with a 3-pointer near the end of the first half as she finished with three points.
Shannon Thomas proved to be solid on both ends of the floor as she scored seven points and pulled down five rebounds in the final game of her freshman season.
Bradley owned a 46-28 advantage on the boards, but ISU did use 13 offensive rebounds to score 21 second chance points. Both teams turned the ball over 13 times although Bradley converted those Sycamore miscues into 15 points while ISU was able to just make five points off of Bradley's mistakes.
Monica Rogers paced the Braves with 16 points, hitting 7-of-12 shots from the field while she was joined in double figures by Michelle Lund with 11, Raisa Taylor with 11 and Renee Frericks with 10.
