PEORIA, Ill. -- After opening the Missouri Valley Conference schedule on the road and playing five of the last six games away from home, the Bradley women's basketball team returns to Renaissance Coliseum Friday to host Missouri State (7 p.m.) in the Valley home opener for the Braves.
Bradley (4-9 overall, 1-1 MVC) will play back-to-back home games for just the second time this season, starting with Friday's contest against the Bears. Friday's game will be Bradley's “We Back Pat” night to help promote awareness for Alzheimer's disease as part of initiatives by the Pat Summitt Foundation and Missouri Valley Conference.
The Morton Junior High School Band will be performing during the contest, which will feature special pricing for individuals who follow Bradley on social media. Fans can show they “Like” the Bradley Athletics Facebook page or “Follow” @BradleyBraves on twitter to receive the group ticket rate of $4 ($8 regular price) when purchasing tickets at the Renaissance Coliseum Ticket Office.
The Braves are 1-1 to start Missouri Valley Conference play for the first time since opening the 2008-09 league schedule with a 4-0 record. Missouri State (5-7 overall, 0-1 MVC) suffered a loss at home to defending Valley regular-season co-champion Wichita State last week. Bradley and Missouri State have split the regular-season series each of the last four years and the Braves are 10-8 in the last 18 matchups with the Lady Bears.
A subscription video stream along with links to live stats and an audio stream of Friday's contest will be available at BradleyBraves.com.
Senior Catie O'Leary (Janesville, Wis./Parker/Wisconsin) was named Missouri Valley Conference Scholar-Athlete of the Week Wednesday after helping Bradley rally for a 77-76 win at Evansville Saturday. O'Leary finished with a season-high 24 points to go with 15 rebounds, five assists, one block and three steals in the win. She is the first Bradley player to collect 20 points, 15 boards and five assists in a game since Val Wancket had 23 points, 17 rebounds and six assists against Loyola on Nov. 25, 1991.
O'Leary scored her 800th career point at Evansville and has averaged 13.5 points per game over the last eight contests. The only player in the MVC to rank in the top 10 in both rebounding (8.5 rpg) and assists (2.4 apg), she is 30 points from becoming the all-time leading scorer among players who transferred to Bradley.
Sophomore Fantasia Vine (Wheaton, Ill./Wheaton North) has also seen an increased role lately, starting four of the last five games. In the starting lineup in place of the injured Kelsey Budd (Prairie du Sac, Wis./Sauk Prairie) Saturday at Evansville, Vine collected career highs of 15 points and seven rebounds. She has averaged 11.8 points on 48 percent shooting and 5.0 rebounds per game over the last five contests, scoring in double figures four times.
Junior Michelle Young (Woodbury, Minn./Woodbury) has also reached double figures in four of the last five games, averaging 18.2 points per game during that stretch, and leads the Missouri Valley Conference in free throw attempts. Young tied a Bradley single-game record with 16 made free throws at Southern Illinois in the Valley opener. She is taking a league-high 7.2 free throw attempts per game this year and her 72 made free throws rank as the 11th highest total by a junior at Bradley.
