PEORIA, Ill. - Bradley welcomes league-leading Northern Iowa to Renaissance Coliseum Friday afternoon for a 5:35 p.m. regionally televised game. Originally scheduled for Sunday afternoon, the game was moved to Friday after being selected for one of the Valley's two "Wildcard Weekend" broadcasts.
The Missouri Valley Conference television cameras will be making their second appearance of the year at Renaissance Coliseum with the game appearing live on Fox Sports Midwest, Fox Sports Kansas City Comcast SportsNet Plus and Fox College Sports. Comcast SportsNet Chicago will air the contest Saturday at 2 a.m. on tape-delay. The Valley televised the Braves' 80-44 home win against Southern Illinois last month.
Bradley (13-13 overall, 6-9 MVC) is coming off back-to-back road wins after posting a 76-60 victory at Southern Illinois Saturday in the final road game of the season. The Braves are eighth in the Valley standings, a half-game behind Indiana State (6-8) and Wichita State (6-8) for a tie for sixth place.
Friday's game against the Panthers kicks off a season-long, three-game homestand for BU to close out the regular-season. Bradley is 5-4 in its last nine games, after opening league play with a 1-5 record; and the Braves are looking to end a two-game home losing skid.
Northern Iowa (21-5 overall, 14-1 MVC) is the hottest team in the conference, owning a school-record 13-game win streak and can lock up at least a share of its first-ever Missouri Valley Conference regular-season championship with one victory in its final three regular-season games. The Panthers, which hold a two-game lead on second-place Creighton, are surrendering a conference-low 55.3 points per game this season.
The Braves hold a 33-24 lead in the all-time series, but look to snap a three-game UNI win streak after the Panthers posted a 58-34 victory last month in Cedar Falls, Iowa. Bradley has won three consecutive home games against Northern Iowa and BU is 21-6 in home games in the all-time series.
Senior Raisa Taylor (Decatur, Ill./Eisenhower) moved up three spots on Bradley's career scoring list into 11th place (1,063 career points) after a pair of 17-point efforts on the road last week. She broke the Bradley career free throw attempts mark, held by Karen Nicholls (480 career attempts) with a 13-for-17 effort from the line Saturday against SIU. Taylor enters Friday's game needing five made free throws to break Shelli Braud's school career record of 328 made free throws.
Sophomore guard Katie Yohn (Elgin, Ill./St. Edward) has climbed into eighth on Bradley's career three-point list (109) and needs just four trey's to move into BU's top five. She is averaging a team-best 13.5 points per game in Missouri Valley Conference play and her 322 points this season are the most by a Bradley sophomore since Sara Bailey scored 521 points during the 2000-01 season.
Live stats for Friday's game will be available at www.BradleyBraves.com along with a free audio stream.
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.
