PEORIA, Ill. - For the fifth consecutive season and ninth time in the last 11 years the Bradley women's basketball team wraps up the regular season at home, facing Indiana State Saturday at 2:05 p.m. at Renaissance Coliseum. Senior Raisa Taylor (Decatur, Ill./Eisenhower) will be playing the final home game of her career and will be recognized in a pre-game ceremony.
Saturday's game will be Military Day with military and their family receiving $4 admission with a valid ID. 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.
The Braves look to end a four-game home losing skid and end the regular season with a victory for the third time in the last four years. Bradley (13-15 overall, 6-11 MVC) will be the #8 seed in next week's State Farm Missouri Valley Conference Tournament after suffering a 71-63 loss to I-74 rival Illinois State Thursday and will face #9 seed Evansville Thursday, March 10 at 5:05 p.m. at the Family Arena in St. Charles, Mo., in the opening round. Indiana State (14-14 overall, 8-9 MVC) is tied with Drake for sixth in the Valley standings after a 73-46 loss at Northern Iowa Thursday.
Taylor had 13 points Thursday against the Redbirds to push her career scoring total to 1,080 points and needs two made free throws to break BU's school career record of 328 free throws held by Shelli Braud. The only senior on the roster, Taylor moved into third in career games played (117) and is two games short of tying the career mark of 119 games played shared by Kelly Krumwiede and Ashley Chelleen. She ranks 22nd in MVC history with 492 career free throw attempts and is tied for eighth in program history with 56 career blocks.
Junior MacKenzie Westcott (Williamsburg, Iowa/Williamsburg) is coming off a game-high 16-point effort against Illinois State Thursday and also had five rebounds, two blocks and four steals against the Redbirds. She is averaging 11.8 points, 6.0 rebounds, 1.3 blocks and 2.4 steals per game over the last eight games and is third on the team in scoring (8.4 ppg), rebounding (6.1 rpg) and assists (1.7 apg) on the year.
Bradley is 4-3 against Indiana State in the last seven games against the Sycamores and the Braves have won each of the last three home games in the series. BU looks to avenge an 84-68 loss to Indiana State from earlier in the year. Prior to this season, Bradley had played Indiana State on the Sycamores' Senior Day in each of the last two seasons and three of the last four years overall. The last time the two squads met on Bradley's Senior Day, the Braves closed out the 2003-04 regular season with a 97-83 victory.
Live stats for Saturday's game will be available at www.BradleyBraves.com along with a free audio stream. Video and audio streams will also be available at the Live Events link at BradleyBraves.com.
