PEORIA, Ill. -- The Bradley women's basketball team looks to snap a four-game road losing streak when the Braves visit Indiana State Friday for a 6 p.m. (CST) matchup with the Sycamores at the Hulman Center in Terre Haute, Ind. Friday's game is the first of back-to-back road games as BU closes out the regular season with four of the last seven games away from home.
Bradley (13-10 overall, 4-7 MVC) is a half game behind Indiana State (10-12 overall, 4-6 MVC) in the Valley standings and one game back of sixth-place Drake heading into the final four weeks of the regular season. The Sycamores have lost six consecutive games heading into Friday's matchup, but own a 7-3 record at home this season.
WIRL 1290 AM will broadcast the game in the Peoria area with the pre-game show scheduled to start at 5:40 p.m. (CST). A free audio stream of WIRL's broadcast will be available at BradleyBraves.com, in addition to a subscription video stream. BradleyBraves.com will also feature live stats of the matchup with the Sycamores.
The Braves are coming off a 66-50 home win against Southern Illinois Saturday and have won back-to-back games for the first time since winning the final five non-conference games of the year in December. BU shot just 30.5 percent from the field in the victory against the Salukis, marking the team's lowest field goal percentage in a victory since shooting 30.2 percent in a 57-44 win against Illinois-Chicago on Nov. 30, 2000.
Seniors MacKenzie Westcott (Williamsburg, Iowa/Williamsburg) and Leah Kassing (Mt. Sterling, Ill./Brown County) both recorded double-doubles Saturday against SIU. Westcott matched a season-high with 15 points and also had 13 boards for her fifth double-double of the year, while Kassing became just the fourth player in school history with 10 double-doubles in a season (13 points & 11 rebounds).
Head coach Paula Buscher will move into sole possession of fifth place in games coached in Missouri Valley Conference history Friday at Indiana State. Buscher is currently tied with former Northern Iowa head coach Tony DiCecco for games coached at a Valley institution at 344, with Friday's contest marking Buscher's 345th game on the Bradley bench.
Westcott is averaging 9.1 rebounds per game over the last nine outings and pulled down her 500th career rebound Saturday against Southern Illinois. She is averaging 14.0 boards per game over the last two games and has collected 10 or more rebounds in five of the last nine games.
Kassing needs eight rebounds to reach 500 for her career and is seven boards from joining Eileen Yerkes as the only players in program history with 300 points, 200 rebounds and 25 blocked shots in a season.
Junior Katie Yohn (Elgin, Ill./St. Edward) is four points from passing Andrea McAllister for 16th on Bradley's all-time scoring list and needs 23 points to become the 16th player in program history to score 1,000 career points. Yohn is 11th in the nation in three-point field goal percentage through games of Feb. 5, shooting 41.7 percent from beyond the arc.
Bradley continues the two-game Valley road swing Sunday with a 2 p.m. game at I-74 rival Illinois State.
