NORMAL, Ill. – Indiana State held onto a slim one-point lead five and a half minutes into Thursday afternoon’s State Farm Missouri Valley Conference first round contest against Bradley, but closed out the period on a 32-11 spurt as the Sycamores took control of the contest and notched its first conference tournament victory since the 2003 season. With the victory, ISU moves to 21-7 overall while Bradley fell to 15-13.

The Sycamores notched its 13^th victory in the last 14 games behind the play of sophomore Stephanie Lisch, who netted a career-high 26 points and junior Kristen Weddle, who scored a career-best 17. Lisch hit 10-of-14 shots from the field, and was 6-of-9 from the free throw line in the victory. Weddle hit three 3-point field goals in the win to reach double figures scoring for the first time since a 80-52 home victory against Wichita State on Jan. 14. Ironically, junior Melanie Boeglin did not reach double figures scoring for the first time since that same contest – being shutout for the first time since a loss at SMS in 2004.

Bradley senior center Dena Williams converted a 3-point play with 14:26 remaining in the first half which sliced the Sycamore advantage to 13-12, but Lisch hit 1-of-2 foul shots then Weddle drained a running jumper to up the lead to 16-12. Junior Lisa Verhoff then connected on a triple to edge the Sycamores up 19-12, but Williams scored inside the cut ISU’s edge back to just five at 19-14 with 12:03 left before the break.

ISU would rattle off the game’s next 10 points, capped on a layup by Lisch with 7:43 showing to put the Sycamores ahead 29-14. Lisch drilled yet another jumper en route to 16 points in the first half with just over a minute showing to get the lead to 20, at 43-23. Lisch stole an inbounds pass with just under two seconds remaining in the half and drove to the basket to stretch a halftime lead up to 45-23.

The Sycamores hit 60.7% of their shots before the break, while turning the ball over just five times.

The second half lead reached 33, at 58-25 with 15:16 left in the game on a jumper by Nikki Hall at the 15:16 mark.

With the large lead, ISU played mostly reserves the final 15 minutes of the contest in order to rest its starters. Sophomore Jackie Gustafson saw a season-high 25 minutes of action in scoring two points, while freshman Laura Rudolphi posted nine points and pulled down three rebounds off the bench.

ISU out-rebounded the Braves by a 41-35 margin – its sixth consecutive game in which they have retrieved more boards than the opposition. ISU now has out-boarded its opponents by five for the season.

The Braves fell to the Sycamores for the third time this season --- but today’s game was the first between the two schools in conference tournament play. The Sycamores shooting percentage of 54.4% was its highest of the season. ISU has now reached the 70 point barrier in 20 of its last 21 games, and has scored 80 or more 10 times this season.

ISU now faces sixth-seeded Drake Friday evening at 7:00 p.m. (EST) in the semifinals of the tournament at Redbird Arena. The Sycamores are now 6-11 all-time in conference tournament play. Drake defeated third-seeded Creighton 61-44 in Thursday’s second quarterfinal contest.