PEORIA, Ill. -- After playing seven of the last eight games away from home, the Bradley women's basketball team returns to Renaissance Coliseum Saturday, Dec. 17, hosting 2011 NCAA Tournament participant Iowa in a 7 p.m. contest in the first of a season-long, four-game home stand.
Saturday's game will be Cram The Coliseum Night, featuring $1 tickets and a special halftime performance by the Chicago Boyz Acrobats. In addition, it will be Girls Night Out with area hair and nail salons providing sample services to fans during the game. Youth teams can receive free admission by emailing rosters to busportsmarketing@bradley.edu
The Braves (7-3 overall) opened the season with 10 games in 26 days, but Saturday's game will be BU's first outing since concluding a three-game road swing with a 66-60 win at SIU Edwardsville on Dec. 6. Bradley improved to 5-0 on the road for the first time since 2001-02 and will be kicking off the longest home stand since the 2005-06 season with Saturday's game against the Hawkeyes.
Iowa (6-4 overall) is making its first trip to Peoria, Ill., since Nov. 19, 1982 and is the first Big Ten opponent other than Illinois to play a game at Bradley since Minnesota visited on Dec. 3, 1999. An Iowa team has not played at Bradley since the Hawkeye baseball team visited May 6, 2003 for a game at O'Brien Field.
Bradley has won a school record seven consecutive road games dating back to last season and won all three games of a three-game road swing for the first time since 2001-02 with last week's victory at SIU Edwardsville. The Braves are looking to end a two-game home losing skid, however, dropping back-to-back home games by a total of five points.
Overall Bradley will play six of the next eight games at Renaissance Coliseum, opening Missouri Valley Conference play with four of the first six league games at home.
Junior guard Katie Yohn (Elgin, Ill./St. Edward) has scored in double figures in five consecutive games and is averaging 14.6 points, 4.4 rebounds and 3.6 assists per game during that stretch. The Braves are 5-1 in their last six games after opening the season with a 2-2 record.
Iowa features four starters from last year's team which finished with a 22-9 record and advanced to the NCAA Tournament. Junior guard Jaime Printy is averaging a team-best 17.8 points per game for the Hawkeyes after earning honorable mention All-American honors in 2010-11.
The matchup will be televised on Mediacom's MC22 on a tape-delayed basis and is scheduled to air Dec. 20 at 10:30 a.m. and 9:30 p.m. along with Thursday, Dec. 22 at 10 a.m. BradleyBraves.com will feature video (subscription) and audio (free) streams in addition to live stats with an interactive live chat.
Bradley head coach Paula Buscher enters Saturday's contest against Iowa looking for career victory #200, while Yohn is seven points from breaking into Bradley's career top 25 in scoring. The Braves are closing out the non-conference portion of the schedule with back-to-back home games for the first time since 2006-07.
Bradley continues the four-game home stand Wednesday, Dec. 21, hosting Western Illinois at 7 p.m. in the final non-conference game of the year.
