PEORIA, Ill. -- The Bradley women's basketball team closes out a three-game Missouri Valley Conference road swing with a pair of games in the Hawkeye State, facing Northern Iowa Friday at 7 p.m. in Cedar Falls, Iowa, before taking on Drake Sunday (2 p.m.) in Des Moines, Iowa.
The Braves (4-12 overall, 1-4 MVC) have been on the road for the bulk of December and January, with Sunday's game at Drake concluding a stretch in which Bradley will have played 10 of 14 games away from home after opening the season with three of four games at Renaissance Coliseum.
Northern Iowa (8-9 overall, 4-2 MVC) is third in the Valley standings after topping Missouri State on the road Monday and the Panthers have won four of their last five heading into the contest. Bradley looks for its first win at the McLeod Center and UNI is 4-2 at home this year with both losses against Big Ten Conference squads.
Drake (7-10 overall, 1-5 MVC) is a half game behind Bradley in the Valley standings heading into a Friday night home game against Loyola. The Bulldogs average a league-high 7.5 three-pointers per game and rank among the league leaders in three-point field goal percentage at 31.6 percent.
Bradley All-Access subscribers will be able to watch both road games and BradleyBraves.com will also provide links to live stats for both contests. WIRL 1290 AM/102.7 FM will air both games locally with the pre-game shows starting 20 minutes prior to tip.
Senior Kelsey Budd (Prairie du Sac, Wis./Sauk Prairie) returned to the lineup at Loyola Sunday after missing three games due to injury and came off the bench to collect eight points, five rebounds, two assists and two steals. The fifth player in program history with 800 career points, 250 rebounds, 275 assists and 125 steals, Budd is just nine assists from breaking into Bradley's career top 10. She is also poised to climb BU's career scoring list, needing 20 points to move from 27th (817 points) into 22nd.
Budd's return to the lineup gave Bradley 10 players in uniform for the first time since mid-November, ending a streak of 10 consecutive games in which the Braves had nine or fewer players available.
Fellow senior Catie O'Leary (Janesville, Wis./Parker/Wisconsin) has turned in double-doubles in three of five Valley games and has a team-high five double-doubles this season after tallying 11 points and 13 rebounds Sunday at Loyola. She is the all-time leading scorer among Bradley transfers with 839 career points and is nine boards short of reaching 500 for her career.
Sophomore Fantasia Vine (Wheaton, Ill./Wheaton North) has played the last two games with a mask after breaking her nose in the second half of the Jan. 10 home game against Missouri State and turned in arguably two of the strongest performances of her career. Vine, who has averaged 18.0 points, 5.5 rebounds, 2.5 assists and 1.0 steals per game since breaking her nose, has scored more points in the last eight games (104) than she did in the first 36 games of her career (97).
Following the weekend road swing, Bradley will play five of the next seven games at Renaissance Coliseum starting with a Jan. 31 matchup with pre-season league favorite Indiana State (7 p.m.).
