PEORIA, Ill. -- The Bradley women's basketball team opens a three-game Missouri Valley Conference road swing Saturday in Cedar Falls, Iowa, against league-leading Northern Iowa. The 3:05 p.m. contest between the Braves and Panthers will be broadcast in the Peoria area on 1290 AM WIRL.
Bradley (10-9 overall, 3-5 MVC) is coming off back-to-back conference victories after defeating Southern Illinois (80-44) and Evansville (65-58) at home last week. The Braves play five of the next seven games on the road beginning with Saturday's game at UNI.
Sophomore guard Katie Yohn (Elgin, Ill./St. Edward) scored a team-high 20 points on 7-of-11 shooting and grabbed a career-high eight rebounds last time out in BU's victory against Evansville. Yohn is averaging 13.9 points per game on the year, including a team-best 14.8 points per outing in Missouri Valley Conference play. Over the last five games she has averaged 16.8 points per game and made 13-of-34 (38 percent) of her three-point attempts.
Senior guard Raisa Taylor (Decatur, Ill./Eisenhower) had 10 points Sunday against the Purple Aces and is 14 points from becoming the 15th player in program history to score 1,000 career points. Taylor, who has 986 career points, passed Andrea McAllister (980 points) for 15th on Bradley's career scoring list last game and is averaging 12.9 points per game this season.
Saturday's game will be the 57th meeting in the all-time series between Bradley and Northern Iowa which dates back to the 1983-84 season. The Braves hold a 33-23 lead in the all-time series with the Panthers and own a 12-15 record in games played in Cedar Falls, Iowa. The two teams have split the regular season series each of the last three years, but UNI posted a 70-50 win against Bradley in the quarterfinals of last year's State Farm Missouri Valley Conference Tournament quarterfinals and has won two of the last three meetings.
Northern Iowa (14-5 overall, 7-1 MVC) is alone atop the Valley standings at 7-1 with Saturday's conference games marking the halfway point of the league race. The Panthers own a conference-best; six-game win streak heading into Saturday's matchup and UNI is 11-2 in their last 13 games after opening the year with a 3-3 mark. The Panthers lost their first two home games of the season, but have won seven consecutive home games and hold a one-game lead on second-place squads Missouri State and Creighton in the standings.
A free audio stream of the game will be joined in progress on Live Event Schedule link at www.BradleyBraves.com
Bradley's three-game road swing continues next week with games at Missouri State (Feb. 4) and at Wichita State (Feb. 6).
