Braves Face Loyola In Opening Round Matchup Thursday

Duane Zehr, Bradley University ITPS

Women's Basketball 3/7/2017 1:15:00 PM

PEORIA, Ill. -- Bradley Women's Basketball will face a familiar opponent in the opening round of the 2017 Missouri Valley Conference Tournament when the seventh-seed Braves take on #10 seed Loyola in a 7 p.m. game Thursday at the iWireless Center in Moline, Ill.

Fresh off a 70-59 home win against I-74 rival Illinois State to close out the regular season which saw Bradley post its best MVC win total (7) and league finish (7th) since 2012-13, the Braves will try to reach the quarterfinals of the Valley tournament for a second consecutive year.

Loyola, which is finishing up its fourth year in the conference, and Bradley will square off in the opening round for the third time in four years. The Braves swept the regular-season series from the Ramblers with a 60-53 road win in early January and a convincing 72-45 home victory on Feb. 3.

All games of the MVC Tournament will be available on ESPN3 as part of The Valley On ESPN3 and can be viewed through WatchESPN.com and the WatchESPN app. In addition, BradleyBraves.com will provide links to live stats. Thursday's game will be broadcast on WIRL 1290 AM (www.1290wirl.com) with Ed Hammond providing play-by-play.

Fans making the trip to Quad Cities for the MVC Tournament are encouraged to attend a send-off for the Bradley women's basketball team Thursday at 5:15 p.m. at the Radisson on John Deere Commons (1415 River Drive, Moline, Ill.) featuring the Bradley Basketball band and cheerleaders. Following the MVC awards presentation at 6 p.m. fans are encouraged to attend the Bradley pre-game party at the Green Tree Brewery Lounge in the iWireless Center.

Quad Cities area native Leti Lerma (Muscatine, Iowa/Muscatine) enjoyed the first MVC Tournament in the Quad Cities last year, turning in double-doubles in both contests for the Braves. Lerma is coming off one of the strongest performances of her career with 21 points, 13 rebounds, six assists and four steals in the home win against Illinois State. She enters Thursday's game needing 11 rebounds to break Bradley's season record of 308 set by Sonya Harris in 2009-10. Over her last five games she has averaged 18.8 points per game on 53 percent shooting to go with 10.8 rebounds, 2.8 assists and nearly two steals per game.

Bradley has committed just 11 turnovers in back-to-back games and three of the last four outings. Over the last 10 games the Braves have averaged 14.8 turnovers per outing after committing nearly 17 turnovers in the first 19 games of 2016-17 and boast a 5-1 record during that 10-game span when turning the ball over 15 times or fewer.

For the third consecutive year Bradley will enter a first-round MVC Tournament matchup looking to complete a three-game sweep of its opponent. Last year the Braves topped Wichita State 56-51 to sweep the three-game series from the Shockers. Since the MVC started holding the league tournament at a neutral site in 2007-08, Bradley has played six of its 13 tournament games against teams it swept in the regular season. The Braves are 3-1 in their last four attempts to win three games in a season against a team and 4-3 in those outings since 2006-07.

Sophomore Vanessa Markert (Mt. Sterling, Ill./Brown County) scored a career-high 26 points in the last meeting with Loyola and shot 68.2 percent (15-for-22) from the field in the two matchups with the Ramblers this season while averaging 18.0 points per tilt.

The winner of Thursday's game will advance to Friday's 6 p.m. quarterfinal against #2 seed Northern Iowa.

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Players Mentioned

#23 Leti Lerma: F; 5' 10"; Senior

#44 Vanessa Markert: F; 6' 2"; Sophomore

Players Mentioned

#23 Leti Lerma
: 5' 10"; Senior
: F

#44 Vanessa Markert
: 6' 2"; Sophomore
: F

Braves Face Loyola In Opening Round Matchup Thursday

Players Mentioned

#23 Leti Lerma

#44 Vanessa Markert

Players Mentioned

#23 Leti Lerma

#44 Vanessa Markert