By JOHN BOHNENKAMP

MACOMB, Ill. — Addi Brownfield’s banked 3-pointer barely beat the buzzer ending the third quarter, and the first thing Brownfield did was run to hug teammate Allie Meadows, who had passed her the ball.

Then she jumped around looking for someone else to hug, and there were plenty of takers in the celebration.

“Yeah, I probably could have played it a little cooler there,” the Western Illinois guard said, laughing.

It was a shot worth celebrating on a night when the Leathernecks kept their cool and pulled out a big early-season win.

Western Illinois rallied from an 11-point first-half deficit to defeat Bradley 84-77 on Thursday night at Western Hall.

Brownfield’s shot was part of so many big second-half moments for the Leathernecks (4-0), who knocked off Bradley (2-2) for the second consecutive season.

“Being down whatever it was, 12, 14, in the first half and clawing our way back, I think that shows the grit this team has and how we can win games down the stretch,” said Brownfield, who had 19 points, one of three Leathernecks in double figures in scoring.

“This one,” said junior Raegan McCowan, who led the Leathernecks with 28 points and hit a tie-breaking shot in the final minute, “was awesome.”

Western Illinois shot 57.7% in the first half while getting to the free-throw line 18 times.

The key to the game, though, came late in the first half, was an 8-3 run by the Leathernecks over the final 2:47. It didn’t seem like much — Western Illinois was still down 38-32 heading to the locker room — but it had a psychological effect, coach JD Gravina said.

“I actually looked at the score at halftime and thought, ‘Is that really the score?’” Gravina said. “We’re down six at halftime, but it felt like we were getting drilled. And I think that’s where we won the game. Everybody’s going to look at the beginning of the third quarter (when the Leathernecks scored the first nine points to take the lead), but I think it was the end of the second quarter. You go into the locker room down 12 or 14, you’re probably done, but you go in down six, and everything changes.”

What the Leathernecks did to start the second half was get the Braves in foul trouble. Western Illinois got five fouls on Bradley in the first two minutes and spent the rest of the third quarter getting free throws.

“In the first half, the shots weren’t falling,” Brownfield said. “But we’ve got a lot of girls who can get into the lane and draw fouls.”

McCowan led the way in that. She drew 11 fouls, and was 14 of 16 in free throws.

“I knew after their starting five, they didn’t have a lot of depth,” McCowan said. “So I wanted to get whoever was guarding me into foul trouble, and anyone else I could.”

McCowan, 10th in the nation in scoring last season at 22.3 points per game, had just 22 points in her first two games this season, but has scored 46 in her last two. She was 6 of 21 from the field in this game, but hit three crucial shots in the second half — a 3-pointer on the possession before Brownfield’s buzzer-beating three that gave the Leathernecks a 59-55 lead, a baseline jumper 12 seconds to answer a 3-pointer from Bradley’s Kaylen Nelson early in the fourth quarter, and then a 15-footer with 46 seconds left that put Western Illinois up 79-77.

“That felt really good for me,” McCowan said. “I think I kind of had a little bit of a tough start to the start of this season. And I mean, it just felt so good to finally see the ball go through the hoop, and some shots go that I normally make that I haven’t been making. So it felt really good tonight.”

“She’s so competitive,” Gravina said. “When things get tough, she buckles down.”

Western Illinois also got 23 points from Mia Nicastro, who came into the game ranked second nationally in scoring at 27.3 points. Nicastro was 9 of 19 shooting despite consistently facing double-teams, and occasionally a triple-team, when she received the ball anywhere near the basket.

“She’s always calm, cool, and collected, but she got beat up a few times,” Gravina said. “She hit some tough shots for us.”

The Leathernecks are off until next Wednesday’s game at No. 19 Iowa.

“We’ll build some momentum off this,” Brownfield said. “We’ll give them our best shot.”