PEORIA, Ill. -- The Bradley women's basketball team will take on Southern Illinois Thursday at 4 p.m. in the opening game of the 2012 State Farm Missouri Valley Conference Tournament at The Family Arena in St. Charles, Mo. The winner of Thursday's opening round game will play regular-season MVC champ Missouri State Friday at noon in the quarterfinals.
Bradley (16-14 overall, 7-11 MVC) ended the regular season with a pair of road wins and has 15 or more victories in four consecutive seasons for the first time in program history entering Thursday's matchup with the Salukis. The Braves topped Wichita State 56-46 last Thursday, before spoiling Missouri State's senior night with an 86-69 win to end the Bears 12-game home win streak.
Southern Illinois (8-21 overall, 4-14 MVC) finished ninth in the Valley standings after ending the regular season with home losses to Indiana State (46-69) and Illinois State (50-72). The Salukis boast two of the top five scorers in the Missouri Valley Conference in freshman guard Cartaesha Macklin (2nd - 16.6 ppg) and junior guard Teri Oliver (5th - 15.9 ppg).
Fans attending the Valley championship are encouraged to attend a sendoff for the Braves, Thursday at 2 p.m. at the Sheraton Westport Lakeside Chalet (191 Westport Plaza - St. Louis, Mo.).
WIRL 1290 AM will carry all of Bradley's tournament games with Thursday's pre-game coverage starting at 3:40 p.m. A free video stream is available through the Missouri Valley Conference website (mvc-sports.com) for Thursday and Friday's games, while BradleyBraves.com will feature links to a free audio stream and live stats for all of Bradley's contests. The semifinals (Saturday) and championship game (Sunday) will be televised on Fox Sports Midwest and Comcast SportNet Chicago.
Freshman guard Shronda Butts (Des Moines, Iowa/East) earned MVC Newcomer of the Week honors for the third time this season earlier this week after averaging 15.5 points, 2.5 assists and 2.0 steals in last week's road wins. Butts scored a season-high 20 points on 8-of-13 shooting in the win at Missouri State and also had four assists, three steals and four rebounds against the Lady Bears.
Senior Latasha Hollingshed (Bellwood, Ill./St. Joseph/Illinois Central) also helped highlight last week's action, averaging 13.5 points on 13-of-16 shooting and 6.0 rebounds off the bench in the two wins.
Senior center Leah Kassing (Mt. Sterling, Ill./Brown County) averaged 14.0 points on 73.3 percent shooting (11-for-15) and 6.5 rebounds in two games at last year's MVC Tournament. Bradley's leading scorer at 13.9 points per game, she is the first BU player with 400 points, 200 rebounds and 30 blocks in a season and is the first BU player to top 400 points since Erika Nelson in 2006-07.
Sophomore Catie O'Leary (Janesville, Wis./Parker/Wisconsin) has averaged a team-best 15.2 points per game over the last five outings to push her season average to 10.3 points per contest. O'Leary has helped BU to a 10-4 record when she scores 10 or more points in her first season on The Hilltop and turned in her first career double-double (15 points and 10 rebounds) last week at Wichita State.
Bradley tied a school record with its eighth road win of the year and will finish the season with a winning road record for the first time since 2004-05. BU is one of 15 teams in the country to post a .500 record or better at home and own more road wins than home victories through games of March 4. The Braves are 9-7 in road and neutral site games this year.
Thursday's matchup with SIU will be the fifth meeting between the two teams in the conference tournament. Southern Illinois pulled out a 65-54 victory against Bradley on March 13, 2008 in St. Charles, Mo., in the only previous neutral site contest between the long-time Valley rivals and the Salukis have won all four prior conference tournament meetings. Bradley has won eight consecutive games in the series, however, dating back to the 2008 MVC Tournament loss and 10 of the last 11 against SIU.
