SIU women’s basketball got itself back in the winning column after a 66-57 road win Friday over Bradley.

Freshmen forward Chelsea Brackmann made a layup with the Braves’ first possession to open up scoring.

The Salukis didn’t trail long as senior forward Carlie Corrigan grabbed a rebound on one end then scored SIU’s first basket of the game.

The Braves controlled the first quarter, leading the entirety of it so that Bradley went into the next quarter with a 11-16 advantage.

To open the second, junior guard Danielle Brewer scored on a layup from Brackmann to give Bradley its biggest lead at that point in the game.

Corrigan again responded with a 2-pointer, cutting the Saluki deficit back to five.

Later in the quarter SIU went on a 6-0 run — four of those points scored by senior guard Rishonda Napier, her first points of the game — which cut Bradley’s lead to just one.

Braves senior forward Leti Lerma quickly scored a 2-pointer down on the other end, extending the lead back to three with 2:42 left in the half.

Lerma finished with 13 points and 11 rebounds.

The Braves maintained control for the remainder of the quarter — they went into the second half with a 25-30 lead.

At the beginning of the third quarter Napier went on a rampage, scoring 13 straight points for the Salukis to give them a 38-35 advantage.

Napier’s scoring outburst sparked the rest of the team and SIU went into the fourth quarter with a 44-43 lead.

She led all scorers with 19 points and also added seven assists.

Bradley retook the lead at the start of the fourth thanks to a layup by Brewer that put the Braves on top 45-44.

After some made free throws by Lerma, SIU went on 6-0 run, putting them ahead 50-47 with 6:56 remaining.

With time winding down the Salukis went on a 7-0 run — highlighted by back-to-back 3-pointers by Napier and junior guard Kylie Giebelhausen.

Bradley didn’t go down without a fight and put together a 6-0 run cutting the SIU lead to just two pointers with 1:48 left in the game.

That would be the last time Bradley put points on the board as the Salukis scored eight unanswered points to win the game 66-57.

SIU is back in action at 2 p.m. on Sunday against Illinois State in Normal.

Staff writer Jonathan Thompson can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @TheReal_Jt3.

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