PEORIA, Ill. -- The Bradley women's basketball team opens a three-game Missouri Valley Conference road swing at defending MVC regular-season and tournament champion Northern Iowa Friday at the McLeod Center in Cedar Falls, Iowa at 7 p.m.
Friday's game is part of the MVC television package and will be televised live on Fox Sports Midwest, Fox Sports Indiana, Fox Sports Kansas City, Fox College Sports, DirecTV (Channel 671), Dish Network (Channel 418) and AT&T U-Verse (Channel 748). In addition, fans outside the states of Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri and Nebraska can watch a free video stream on ESPN3. Scott Warmann and Laura Leonard will provide commentary on both broadcast feeds.
Bradley (11-7 overall, 2-4 MVC) snapped a three-game home losing skid with a convincing 79-58 win against Indiana State Saturday to hand the Sycamores their first conference loss of the year. The Braves trailed by as many as 12 points in the first half, but made 11 of 15 shots to close the period and led by as many as 32 points in the second half en route to the victory.
The Braves are 6-1 in road games this season, but had a program record eight-game road win streak snapped at Evansville earlier this month in the squad's last road game. Bradley is 9-2 in its last 11 road contests and will continue a three-game Valley road swing next week with games at Drake (Jan. 27) and at Creighton (Jan. 29). BU will play five of the next seven games away from home.
Northern Iowa (11-6 overall, 4-2 MVC) started the week in third in the Valley standings after a 79-73 home win against Illinois State Saturday and will be wrapping up a season-long, three-game home stand Friday. UNI is 6-3 at home this season, which includes a 2-2 mark in Valley play.
Three Panthers are scoring in double figures led by senior Katelin Oney's 12.9 points per outing. UNI is averaging a league-best 7.0 three-pointers per game and is second in the Valley in turnovers per game (15.8).
Sophomore guard Kelsey Budd (Prairie du Sac, Wis./Sauk Prairie) helped highlight Saturday's win against Indiana State for the Braves, making 6-of-7 three-point attempts and scoring 25 points off the bench. The 25-point outburst helped Budd join UCONN's Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis as the only players in the country to score 25 points or more off the bench in two different games this season.
Budd's six three-pointers also made her the third BU player to hit six or more trey's in a game this season, joining junior Katie Yohn (Elgin, Ill./St. Edward) who was 6-for-7 from beyond the arc at Winthrop and sophomore Catie O'Leary (Janesville, Wis./Parker/Wisconsin), who made 6-of-9 three-point attempts in the win against Iowa. Bradley joined Florida Gulf Coast as the only squads in the country to have three individuals with six or more three-point makes in a game this season.
Yohn made her 150th three-pointer and scored her 900th career point Saturday against Indiana State. She needs 16 points to pass Jenn Jolley for 18th in career scoring at BU and is 20 points behind Ashley Chelleen for 17th. Yohn has averaged 11.7 points per game in six career outings against UNI.
