PEORIA, Ill. -- The Bradley women's basketball team continues the final home stand of the 2011-12 regular season Friday with a 6 p.m. game against Drake at Renaissance Coliseum. The Braves look to avenge a 77-62 loss to the Bulldogs in Des Moines, Iowa, last month.
Bradley (14-12 overall, 5-9 MVC) won its fourth consecutive home game last Friday, topping defending Missouri Valley Conference regular-season champion Northern Iowa 75-61. The Braves enter the weekend one game behind seventh-place Indiana State, which hosts Missouri State Friday, and a game and a half back of Drake for sixth in the Valley standings.
Drake (13-13 overall, 7-8 MVC) has lost five of seven games since beating Bradley at home back on Jan. 27 and has played six of the last eight games at home. The Bulldogs posted a 55-51 win at Evansville on Feb. 12 in the team's last road game and is 3-4 in league road contests. Drake's Rachael Hackbarth has recorded 12 consecutive double-doubles and leads the MVC in scoring (19.8 ppg), rebounding (11.3 rpg) and field goal percentage (54.3 percent)
BradleyBraves.com will feature video (subscription) and audio (free) streams of the game, in addition to an interactive live chat on the live stats window.
Friday's game will feature two of the top rebounding teams in the Missouri Valley Conference. The Bulldogs lead the Valley in rebounding margin (+5.7 per game) and also rank as one of the top defensive units in the league, holding opponents to 60.9 points per game. Bradley is third in the MVC in rebounding margin (+4.5 per game) and averages a conference-best 15.0 offensive rebounds per game.
Iowa native Shronda Butts (Des Moines, Iowa/East) helped spark the Braves to last week's victory against UNI, scoring 12 of her 16 points in the second half. The only BU player to shoot a free throw in the game, Butts made her first 10 free throws and finished 10-of-11 from the charity stripe. Her 10 free throws are the second most in a game by a Bradley freshman, second only to Kelly Krumwiede's 12 made free throws against Illinois-Chicago on Nov. 18, 2005.
While Hackbarth leads the MVC in rebounding, Bradley is the only team in the conference to have two players ranked in the top 10 in rebounding. Senior Leah Kassing (Mt. Sterling, Ill./Brown County) is fourth in the conference at 8.1 boards per game and averages a league-best 3.5 offensive rebounds per game.
Senior MacKenzie Westcott (Williamsburg, Iowa/Williamsburg) is eighth in the MVC in rebounding (7.3 rpg) and needs nine boards to give Bradley two players with 200 or more rebounds in the same season for just the second time in program history.
Kassing is coming off an 18-point effort against Northern Iowa last week and was one of four Bradley players to score in double figures vs. the Panthers. Sophomore Kelsey Budd (Prairie du Sac, Wis./Sauk Prairie) scored a game-high 22 points on 10-of-15 shooting against UNI, while Catie O'Leary (Janesville, Wis./Parker/Wisconsin) added 11 points in the win.
Bradley closes out the home stand Sunday with a 2 p.m. game against Creighton at Renaissance Coliseum.
