PEORIA, Ill. – For Indiana State, a sweep has never felt so good. When that opponent is Bradley, that is saying something.
 
The Sycamores rallied from a 15-point second quarter deficit for their 12^th win over Bradley in 13 tries, maintaining their hold on fifth place in the Missouri Valley Conference and eclipsing their league win total over last year's mark in a thrilling 74-70 victory at Renaissance Coliseum in Peoria on Sunday afternoon.
 
Ashli O'Neal led all scorers with 21 points, Alexis Delgado broke out of a funk with a 5-for-7 performance from beyond arc and Indiana State (9-16, 7-7) snapped a three-game skid with the win.
 
"Alexis was obviously the difference for us," Indiana State interim head coach Josh Keister said. "She's a great shooter, she's a good player. She has been struggling the last few weeks and she's just really hung in there, put the time in the gym and for her to have that type of success today is tremendous. It came at a great time for us."
 
But the Trees didn't get the win without a little help. Delgado missed a jump shot, hitting the backboard and barely missing the rim as O'Neal grabbed the rebound. Bradley's Anneke Schlueter, perhaps not realizing only six seconds remained on the shot clock, immediately fouled O'Neal.
 
With the shot clock turned off, Bradley (12-14, 6-9) was forced to foul O'Neal again, who promptly hit both free throws, pushing the lead to 73-70. After Gabi Haack, who led Bradley with 19 points and four 3-pointers, missed on a desperate 3-point shot, Indiana State's Ty Battle grabbed the rebound, got fouled, made a free throw shot with 0.8 seconds left in the game and clinched the victory.
 
While it may seem a relaxing sequence of events when read, it was anything but. Bradley coach Andrea Gorski used her final timeout to move the ball past half court to set up a potential game-tying shot. But despite the high tensions in Renaissance Coliseum, the Sycamores remained calm and composed. That might be surprising for a team whose only other double-digit comeback this year came at the expense of an Evansville team on Jan. 5 that has now lost 16 straight games.
 
 "This group is really growing up," Keister said of his team's composure and focus. "They were disappointed in their effort Friday night and they knew that we were a better team than that. They really wanted to show that today. The maturity level of this group is really growing, along with the confidence. I'm not sure we would have been able to do this a few weeks ago but it is a big sign for us.
 
More than just confidence and composure, the cylinders all began to click for the Indiana State offense Sunday. The Trees shot 41 percent from the field, posted a positive assist-to-turnover ratio (15:13) and scored more points than they have in a game in three weeks.
 
"It came down to the ball movement today," explained Kesiter. "That is something we have stressed for the last two days. We didn't have it Friday night at Illinois State but today the ball movement was much better. Bradley did a good job of mixing up defenses. Regardless of what they were in, we had great ball movement and great player movement. When you do that, you are going to get rhythm shots and we had a lot of good looks today."
 
That ball movement – and aggressive rebounding – helped Wendi Bibbins (14 points, 11 rebounds) to just her third double-double of the season.
 
The Sycamores now return to Terre Haute for their final two home games of the year and an opportunity to stay in the top half of the conference standings.
 
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