PEORIA, Ill. -- Bradley's season-long, five-game road swing continues when the Braves face Big East Conference foe South Florida in the first game of a men's and women's doubleheader between BU and Bulls Tuesday afternoon at the Sun Dome. The women's game will tip at 4 p.m. (CST) with the Bradley men's basketball team facing USF at 6:30 p.m. (CST).
The Braves (2-1 overall) have started out the road swing strong, edging Eastern Illinois 66-65 in the road opener last Monday before leading from start to finish in an 83-77 victory at Illinois Thursday. USF (2-0 overall) is Bradley's third opponent this season which participated in the 2011-12 WNIT, advancing to the third round of last year's event.
The trip to Florida is BU's fourth overall and first venture to the Sunshine State since playing in a tournament at Miami in 2005-06. The Braves are 3-3 all-time in games played in Florida, including a 1-1 record in true road games. Bradley will be traveling outside the state of Illinois for the first time this season and Tuesday's contest will mark the first meeting between BU and USF. Beradley is USF's first Missouri Valley Conference foe since Nov. 2007 and is the first of two Valley schools on the Bulls' 2012-13 schedule.
A subscription video stream is available at gousfbulls.com and BradleyBraves.com will provide a link to a free audio stream in addition to live stats for Bradley's first regular-season game against a current member of the Big East since 1997-98. WIRL 1290 AM will carry the game locally with the pre-game show scheduled to start at 3:40 p.m.
The Braves have won seven consecutive regular-season non-conference road games and Bradley is 12-7 in its last 19 road games overall.
First-year Bradley head coach Michael Brooks is the second coach in school history to earn wins in each of his first two road games on The Hilltop and is just the fourth coach in program history to start out his tenure with the Braves with a 2-1 record.
Junior Catie O'Leary (Janesville, Wis./Parker/Wisconsin) is Bradley's leading scorer and rebounder (14.0 ppg & 10.0 rpg) after turning in her second career double-double (15 points & 12 rebounds) in Thursday's win at Illinois. Fellow junior Kelsey Budd (Prairie du Sac, Wis./Sauk Prairie) averaged 15.5 points per game in the two games last week and is adding 11.0 points per game this year in addition to tying for the team lead in assists (3.3 per game).
BU's reserves combined for 41 points to help highlight the win at Illinois with three players coming off the bench to score in double figures for the first time since Dec. 17, 2007 in a home win against Illinois-Chicago. Bradley's reserves, which are paced by junior Kelly Frings (Milwaukee, Wis./Pius XI) 8.3 points-per-game average, are outscoring the opponents' bench by an average margin of +12.3 points per game this season and have scored 25.0 points per outing.
Bradley will head to Flagstaff, Ariz., closing out the five-game road swing Friday and Saturday at the Northern Arizona Thanksgiving Classic. The Braves face preseason Conference USA favorite Tulane Friday (5 p.m. CST) and will take on either Western Michigan or tournament-host Northern Arizona Saturday afternoon.
