PEORIA, Ill. -- The Bradley women's basketball team returns to Renaissance Coliseum after wrapping up a season-long, four-game road swing with a 72-70 overtime victory at Wisconsin-Milwaukee Wednesday and will host Saint Louis Saturday in a 2:05 p.m. game. The Braves (4-3 overall) went 3-1 on the road swing and will play two of the next three games at home beginning with Saturday's tilt against the Billikens.
Bradley trailed by as many as 11 points in the second half Wednesday at UWM before rallying to pull out the 72-70 victory in overtime. Sophomore guard Katie Yohn (Elgin, Ill./St. Edward) made three free throws with 1.4 seconds left to tie the game at 62-62 and force overtime.
The Braves trailed 70-66 with 90 seconds remaining in overtime when Milwaukee, Wis., native Kelly Frings (Milwaukee, Wis./Pius XI) had a basket with 1:13 to play and made a pair of free throws with 51.7 remaining to tie the game at 70-70. Senior Raisa Taylor (Decatur, Ill./Eisenhower) connected on a pair of free throws with 6.6 left in overtime to help Bradley to the 72-70 win.
Bradley has won each of the last three meetings with Saint Louis and owns a 7-3 advantage in the all-time series. The Braves are 3-1 in home games against the Billikens with the lone loss coming on Dec. 29, 2002 when SLU posted an 80-44 win.
Saint Louis (4-4 overall) has won three of its last four games and is wrapping a four-game road swing Saturday. Bradley is the second of three consecutive Missouri Valley Conference opponents for the Billikens who are coming off a 66-39 victory at Southern Illinois Thursday and will host Missouri State Dec. 12 in St. Louis.
Junior Latasha Hollingshed (Bellwood, Ill./St. Joseph/Illinois Central) led Bradley with 13 points and a career-high 20 rebounds Wednesday at Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Her 20 boards are the most by a BU player since Carrie Coffman had 22 rebounds at Wichita State on Feb. 9, 1995 and is tied for the fifth-best total in program history. Hollingshed is averaging 9.8 points and 12.6 rebounds per game over the last five contests and leads the MVC in rebounding with a 10.9 boards per game average.
Taylor moved into a tie with Erika Nelson for 20th on Bradley's career scoring list with a nine-point effort Wednesday and needs three points to pass Roxanne Grabow (1979-83) for 19th on the career chart. Taylor ranks fifth in The Valley in scoring (13.4 ppg) and fourth in assists (3.7) heading into the weekend. Yohn is adding 12.6 points per outing and has reached double figures in scoring in eight consecutive games. She tied career highs with five assists and three blocks Wednesday at UWM to go along with 12 points.
Live stats for Saturday's game will be available at www.BradleyBraves.com and video (subscription) and audio (free) streams will also be available at the Live Event Schedule link on the Bradley Athletics website.
Season tickets for the 2010-11 women's basketball campaign are $75 for the general public and $30 for Bradley faculty and staff at the Renaissance Coliseum ticket office (1601 W. Main Street). Individual tickets are $8 for adults and $4 for children (K-12) and Bradley faculty and staff. For more information please call (309) 677-2625. Free parking is available for all Bradley women's basketball home games at the Main Street Parking Deck located just west of Renaissance Coliseum at the corners of Main Street & Maplewood.
