TU’s Bradbury Named NAIA First-Team All-American
KANSAS CITY – Taylor University’s Kendall Bradbury was named an NAIA Division II First-Team All-American on Thursday, as announced by the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics.
Bradbury joins Natalie Steele and Liz Plass as the only three players in program history to earn All-American honors three times in a career and gives TU women’s basketball its 13th NAIA All-American award after being named a Third-Team All-American a year ago.
The NAIA Division II Women’s Basketball All-American list consisted of 60 student-athletes with 10 spots on each of the first, second and third teams and 30 on the honorable mention list.
Bradbury made several adjustments to the Taylor record books during the 2017-2018 campaign, starting with the team’s single-game scoring record by scoring 41 points on a program-record-tying 16 made field goals in TU’s 109-90 upset of No. 13 Olivet Nazarene on December 16. The junior forward then broke the program’s single-season scoring record of 680 points by Liz Plass during the 2003-2004 season on February 17 and ended the season with 810 points, while also setting a new program mark for most field goals made in a season (296), breaking Liz Plass’s 249 made field goals in 2004-2005.
Bradbury then became the fastest player in Taylor history to reach 2,000 career points with a 39-point performance in the Trojans’ 62-58 win at No. 15 Indiana Wesleyan in the Crossroads League Tournament Semifinals on February 23. Bradbury reached the 2,000-point plateau in just 94 games and became the third Trojan and the 11th player in Crossroads League history to reach the mark.
In addition to being named NAIA First-Team All-American, Bradbury also earned First-Team All-Crossroads League and CoSIDA Academic All-District II honors for a second-straight year, while racking up eight Crossroads League Player of the Week awards and her first-career NAIA National Player of the Week nod.
Bradbury was the only player in the NAIA Division II to average both 20 points and 10 rebounds on the season, ranking second in the nation with a career-high 23.1 points per game and 11th with a career-high 10.2 rebounds per game. The Valor Christian product’s 810 total points this season was tops in the nation by a wide margin, as NAIA Division II Player of the Year, Kara Krolicki, was second with 700 points. Bradbury also rated No. 5 in Division II with 17 double-doubles in 35 games.
Taylor has now claimed 17 NAIA All-American awards during the 2017-2018 year.
