Glen Lake graduates Grace and Maddie Bradford finished up their junior and sophomore collegiate basketball seasons for Lake Superior State University at the beginning of March.
Both sisters played important roles throughout the 2024-25 basketball season, despite a 2-18 record in a gauntlet of a Great Lakes Intercollegiate Conference.
Grace finished her junior season averaging 14.3 points per game while achieving her 1,000th point against Michigan Tech in February. The junior hit a 3-point shot and the crowd erupted for Bradford even at Michigan Tech.
She scored a season high 29 points, 16 rebounds against Roosevelt, and had five games with 20 or more points.
“When I reached my 1,000th point, I didn’t realize it until I got subbed out, which was pretty cool. It was a big moment for me just seeing how far I’ve come in my college experience. Falling into that leadership role as an upperclassman has been super fun… leading by example,” Grace said.
Maddie and Grace are the daughters of Jason and Jaclyn Bradford and Jason served as their basketball coach.
The Lakers were in a transition this year with a new coach, but pretty much the same roster.
“It was really big for us just to have our same core group and to build on that and yeah, we are a building program trying to get back up to like the top of the conference. But our new coaches were great and we just like worked on the little things … but obviously I mean we didn’t pull out a lot of wins. We grew a lot as people and just good life lessons knowing that it’s how much you put in and how much you get out of that type of thing and working as a team is huge, especially when we’re working towards the same goal and like playing unselfishly. It’s very important as well so and obviously playing with Maddie too has been great,” Grace said.
Grace finished the season and was selected to the ALL-GLIAC Second Team.
She played in nearly all the games since her freshman season and has nearly 1,000 rebounds along with 1,000 points.
Grace was named the 2023 GLIAC Women’s Basketball freshman of the year.
This is Grace on heading into her senior season.
“I would say just like it being my last year, I just want to make the most of it and try to make the best of our team that we possibly can. Getting a good winning record is a big goal of mine and just slip it around and just work hard and in the offseason and preseason and during the season and just. Make strides in that and becoming a better team,” Grace said.
Both sisters helped lead Glen Lake to a Northwest Conference and District championship in all four years with the team while claiming three regional titles.
Grace was a first team allstate selection three times and won four conference championships and led the Lakers to a state finals appearance. She paved the way for the Lakers to win their state championship the following year.
Maddie averaged 15.8 points and 7.5 rebounds per game during her high school career.
She was finding her footing at the colliegiate level this season but played a pivotal role for the Lakers all season. She had a season high against Michigan Tech with 12 points and averaged three points this season. Maddie also recorded a season high in assists and blocks against Grand Valley State University with six rebounds and five assists.
“I think overall went pretty well. Just keep working hard and just keep pushing myself to be a better player on and off the court because we are student athletes so we've still got to be good in school and all that… so just keep pushing myself to be a better player and I still have two more years, so there’s a lot more I can do,” Maddie said.
Maddie led the Lakers to a 2023 MHSAA Division IV State Championship where Maddie had 28 points along with an eight rebound performance in the state title game.
She was named MHSAA Division IV All-State First Team, marking the second-consecutive season that Bradford received First Team All-State honors.
As Maddie is still developing, this is her focus heading into her junior season at LSSU.
“Definitely underneath the basket getting rebounds, cause it’s hard to get rebounds against the bigger girls so definitely working on my rebounding back to the basketball moves and of course work on shooting so,” Maddie said.
This is another favorite moment of hers: “Just because I like to share the ball, so anytime I hit a good cut or a good pass out and they made a shot that was like my favorite part of the games,” Maddie said.
Grace is majoring in nursing and Maddie is majoring in education.
