Braves Face Road Test At SIU Sunday

Daryl Wilson

Women's Basketball 2/10/2018 9:45:00 AM

PEORIA, Ill. – Both the Bradley men's and women's basketball teams head to Carbondale, Ill., for a Sunday doubleheader against Southern Illinois. The Bradley women will look to snap a two-game skid Sunday in an 11:30 a.m. to open the twinbill, while the Bradley men take on the Salukis in a 3 p.m. contest at SIU Arena.

The Braves will play a doubleheader with the men's team for the first time since a non-conference doubleheader at Renaissance Coliseum on Dec. 4, 2013 and the last time the teams played a conference doubleheader was Feb. 8, 2004 at Wichita State. While Bradley has lost four consecutive road games in the series with Southern Illinois, the Braves are 6-4 in the last 10 contests at SIU Arena and 11-6 over the last 17 seasons on the road against the Salukis.

Sunday's game will be available on ESPN3 as part of the MVC media rights agreement with ESPN. The Valley On ESPN3 can be viewed through WatchESPN.com and the WatchESPN app. In addition, Ed Hammond will handle the radio broadcast on WIRL 1290 AM with links to the audio stream available at BradleyBraves.com

Bradley (11-12 overall, 5-7 MVC) is two games behind Southern Illinois (12-11 overall, 7-5 MVC) for fourth in the MVC standings after a loss at Missouri State Friday. Despite the road setback, the Braves enter the contest tied for the most combined road and neutral site victories in the Valley at six.

Southern Illinois has dropped three consecutive games heading into Sunday's matchup after a three-point home loss to Illinois State.

Two points in the "Battle for Illinois" are on the line in Sunday's doubleheader between Bradley and Southern Illinois. Loyola and Illinois State are currently tied for the lead with five points, following the Redbirds win over the SIU women Friday. The Braves are third in the standings with four points, while Southern Illinois sits in fourth with 3 points. After Sunday's games, only five games in the series remain with both Bradley and SIU having just two games to play in the series, while both Loyola and Illinois State still have three games left.
Bradley went with a bigger lineup Friday at Missouri State, starting both 6-1 sophomore forward Chelsea Brackmann and 6-2 junior forward Vanessa Markert for the first time this season. In fact, it was just the third time over the last two seasons the two have started the same game and first since last Feb. 12, 2017 at Drake. Going inside has paid dividends for Bradley in 2017-18, with the Braves boasting an 8-2 record when owning an advantage in points in the paint. The only losses this season when BU has outscored its foe in the paint came at Northern Illinois on Nov. 29 and a two-point setback at home against Cleveland State.
Friday's game at Missouri State marked the 115^th career game for senior Anneke Schlueter, who is now tied for 10^th in school history in career games played. Schlueter enters Sunday's game at Southern Illinois needing three points to move into the top 20 in career scoring at Bradley and with 958 points during her time on The Hilltop, she is currently 22 points behind BU head coach Andrea Gorski (980 points) for 18^th in career scoring for the Braves.
Freshman Gabi Haack scored 13 points Friday at Missouri State for her fourth consecutive double-digit scoring outing as she topped 10 points for the ninth time in the last 10 games. Haack has a team-best 13 double-digit scoring efforts to her credit. Her 142 rebounds this season is currently tied for the 10^th best season total by a Bradley freshman and her 44 three-pointers rank as the fifth-best total by a Bradley underclassman. Over the last 10 games, Haack has averaged 12.6 points and 6.8 rebounds per game to raise her season averages to 9.8 ppg and 6.2 rpg. The last Bradley freshman to average at least 6.2 rebounds per game, coupled with at least 9.8 points per outing was Heather Best in 1995-96 (12.6 ppg & 6.4 rpg).
Senior Danielle Brewer had a team-high 14 points at Missouri State Friday to go with three rebounds and four assists. Brewer, who is averaging 8.8 points per game on the road compared to 6.6 points per outing at home, has collected four of her five double-digit scoring efforts this season on the road. In fact, seven of her last nine performance with 10 or more points have come away from home dating back to last season. Brewer is shooting 44 percent from the field on the road vs. 42 percent at home in addition to shooting 33 percent from three-point range in road contests compared to 19 percent at Renaissance Coliseum. Last season she averaged 6.6 in road games vs. 9.0 in home games. In fact, in MVC road games this season Brewer has averaged 11.5 points per game on 56 percent shooting.
The bench has been a big boost for Bradley this season with a reserve scoring in double figures in 14 of 22 games. Friday's game at Missouri State snapped a stretch of five consecutive games in which one of the Braves' reserves had 10 or more points. Bradley has had a total of 21 double-digit scoring efforts by a reserve in 14 different games this season compared to 18 such performances last year in 15 different outings. The last season in which Bradley totaled at least 21 double-digit scoring efforts by reserves was 2012-13 (23), culminating in a 14-16 overall record and sixth-place league finish at 8-10.

Bradley returns to Renaissance Coliseum next week for the team's Play4Kay Weekend. The Braves will host Evansville Friday, Feb. 16 at 7 p.m. before facing Indiana State Sunday, Feb. 18 in a 2 p.m. contest.

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