PEORIA, Ill. -- The Bradley women's basketball team opens a season-long, four-game road swing Monday with a noon game at in-state non-conference foe Eastern Illinois in the Braves first trip to Charleston, Ill., since the 2006-07 season. The afternoon tilt opens a stretch in which Bradley will play eight of the next 10 games away from home.
The Braves (1-2 overall) are looking to end a two-game skid after losing back-to-back games against teams from the Big Ten Conference. Eastern Illinois is the fourth consecutive opponent which advanced to the postseason for BU. Junior Latasha Hollingshed (Bellwood, Ill./St. Joseph/Illinois Central) made her first career start Friday against Illinois and turned in career-highs of 21 points and 12 rebounds for her second career double-double in the loss to the Illini.
Senior Raisa Taylor (Decatur, Ill./Eisenhower) also scored in double figures Friday, finishing with 12 points, and leads BU with a 14.3 points per game average. Taylor is one point from moving into 27th on Bradley's career scoring list and is 20 points from breaking into BU's career top 25.
Eastern Illinois (1-2 overall) returned six letterwinners, including two starters from last year's team which finished with a 23-11 overall record and made the first postseason appearance for the Panthers since 1988 after advancing to the WNIT. A one-time conference foe of the Braves in the Gateway Conference, EIU is the preseason pick to win the Ohio Valley Conference this season. Freshman guard Jackie Hermann leads the Panthers in scoring at 16.0 points per outing, while sophomore guard Ta'Kenya Nixon adds 13.0 points per game and leads the team in both rebounding (8.5 rpg) and assists (6.5 apg).
A free audio stream of the game against Eastern Illinois will be available at the Live Events link on the Bradley Athletics home page (www.BradleyBraves.com). Live stats will be available at http://www.sidearmstats.com/eiu/wbball/index.htm
