PEORIA, Ill. -- After closing the first half of Missouri Valley Conference play with a pair of convincing home victories, the Bradley women's basketball team starts the second half of league play with a three-game road swing. The Braves play five of the next seven games on the road, starting Friday with a 7 p.m. game at defending regular-season Valley champion Missouri State before taking on current MVC leader Wichita State Sunday at 2 p.m.
Fresh off back-to-back home wins, Bradley (9-11 overall, 3-6 MVC) can match its longest win streak of the season Friday with a victory at Missouri State. The Braves and Bears enter the matchup tied for seventh in the league standings with a 3-6 record. BU edged Missouri State 80-79 on Jan. 12 at Renaissance Coliseum on a Katie Yohn (Elgin, Ill./St. Edward) three-pointer with 1.9 seconds to play.
Bradley is 3-1 in four trips to Missouri State's JQH Arena, owning the most victories among visiting teams in the near five seasons the facility has been in use. The rest of the Missouri Valley Conference has combined for a 9-27 record at JQH Arena since the venue opened for the 2008-09 season.
Friday's game at Missouri State features the top two scoring teams in the Missouri Valley Conference, with Bradley averaging a league-best 72.7 points per game after Saturday's 90-48 win against Southern Illinois. Missouri State (11-10 overall, 3-6 MVC) is coming off a season-high 91-point effort in a home win against Illinois State and is in the middle of a season-long, four-game home stand. The Bears are second in the Valley in scoring behind the Braves at 70.8 points per game.
Following Friday's contest, BU will travel to Wichita State (15-6 overall, 9-0 MVC) looking to avenge a 62-58 home loss to the Shockers earlier this season. Wichita State has won four consecutive home games heading into a Friday night contest against Northern Iowa and the Shockers have held opponents to a conference-low 52.0 points per outing.
BradleyBraves.com will provide links to live stats and a free audio stream for both road games. Bradley All-Access subscribers will be able to watch Sunday's game at Wichita State as part of their subscription package. WIRL 1290 AM will carry both games locally with the pre-game show scheduled to start 20 minutes prior to tip-off.
Bradley has been heating up from long range of late, shooting a combined 51.2 percent from three-point range over the last three games and 40 percent or better in each of the three outings. Prior to the recent three-game stretch, the Braves had gone 28 consecutive games without shooting at least 40 percent from three-point range and were shooting 28.3 percent from beyond the arc on the season in the first 17 games of the year. Over the last 31 games, or dating back to Feb. 4, 2012, BU is 10-4 when shooting at least 30 percent from three-point territory.
Saturday's strong offensive performance was highlighted by six different players scoring in double figures in the 90-48 victory against Southern Illinois. Bradley had not had six players score 10 or more points in the same game since Feb. 8, 1992 - a 90-68 win against Western Illinois. Over the last two games, eight of Bradley's 10 active players have scored in double figures and five individuals have scored a season-high in points in the last three games.
Following Sunday's game at Wichita State, the Braves close out a three-game road swing Saturday, Feb. 16 with a 2 p.m. game at Northern Iowa.
