Women’s Basketball Visits Eastern Illinois Tuesday

Women's Basketball 12/4/2017 1:01:00 PM

PEORIA, Ill. – Bradley Women's Basketball returns to the road Tuesday night, facing Eastern Illinois in a 6 p.m. contest at Lantz Arena in Charleston, Ill., in the final outing before semester finals for the Braves.

Tuesday's game is the fifth contest away from home in a six-game span for Bradley (4-3 overall) and concludes a stretch of three consecutive games against in-state foes. The Braves will be playing their fifth game in a 12-day span to finish out the busiest portion of the 2017-18 schedule before taking a 10-day break for finals.

The first meeting between Bradley and Eastern Illinois (1-5 overall) in four years, will be streamed on the Ohio Valley Digital Network. In addition, Ed Hammond will handle the radio broadcast on WIRL 1290 AM with links to the audio stream available at BradleyBraves.com

While Bradley and Eastern Illinois were both members of the Gateway Conference from 1983-84 through 1991-92 and have played 37 times previously, the teams will be playing for just the 10th time since their Gateway Conference days. The Braves hold a 5-4 lead in those non-conference matchups.

The Panthers have a slim 19-18 edge in the all-time series after pulling out a 71-67 victory at Renaissance Coliseum on Dec. 4, 2013 in the last contest between the two. Bradley is 8-11 on the road in the series, but has won back-to-back games at Lantz Arena and four of the last five road games against EIU. Two of the last three matchups in the series between Bradley and EIU were decided by one point and the last five contests have had a final margin of five points or less. The Braves own an 8-4 record in the last 12 games against teams from the Ohio Valley Conference, which includes a 4-1 road mark.

Bradley's 58-48 win against Illinois-Chicago Saturday was highlighted a balanced offensive attack. Eleven of 12 Braves who appeared in the game scored and seven individuals had five or more points in the contest, but no Bradley player scored in double figures.

BU won a game in which it did not have a player score 10 or more points for the first time since at least the 1976-77 season and possibly the first time in program history (box scores for the 1975-76 and 1976-77 seasons are not available in the Bradley Athletics archives). Bradley is one of two MVC teams to not have a player averaging 10 or more points per game this season along with Loyola and the Braves join defending league champion Drake as the only squads in The Valley to have seven players scoring at least five points per game.

With the finals break up next for Bradley, the Braves will try to improve on the team's 19-11 record in the final game before finals over the last 30 years. Since 1987-88, Bradley is 7-6 when playing the final game before finals on the road, which includes a 6-2 mark when playing at an in-state opponent.

Sophomore Chelsea Brackmann pulled down a season-best 15 rebounds against Illinois-Chicago and has had 10 or more rebounds in back-to-back contests. She is currently third in the MVC in rebounding at 8.3 boards per game and has helped Bradley average a league-leading 43.4 boards per tilt. Brackmann has averaged 9.4 rebounds per game over the last five outings. The Braves are 4-0 this season when owning an advantage on the glass and have won six consecutive games dating back to last season when they have a rebounding edge.

Bradley will follow up Tuesday's game at Eastern Illinois with the final non-conference road contest of the year when the Braves visit Wisconsin-Green Bay Saturday, Dec. 16 for a 1 p.m. tilt.

Print Friendly Version

Players Mentioned

#5 Chelsea Brackmann: F; 6' 1"; Sophomore

Players Mentioned

#5 Chelsea Brackmann
: 6' 1"; Sophomore
: F

Women’s Basketball Visits Eastern Illinois Tuesday

Players Mentioned

#5 Chelsea Brackmann

Players Mentioned

#5 Chelsea Brackmann