PEORIA, Ill. -- The Bradley women's basketball team opens a season on the road for the first time since 2009-10 Friday when the Braves travel to Chicago for a 7 p.m. game at Illinois-Chicago which will air on ESPN3.
The new look Braves, who feature nine newcomers, open a season with five-game road swing for the first time since 1992-93 and will play the first four games of the 2014-15 campaign against teams which advanced to the post season last year.
Bradley turned in a dominating performance in its only exhibition contest of the year Friday against Eureka, routing the Red Devils 90-31. The Braves forced 39 turnovers and limited Eureka to 19.5 percent shooting. Sophomore Leti Lerma (Muscatine, Iowa/Muscatine) paced three Bradley players in double figures with a game-high 17 points off the bench.
Illinois-Chicago returned seven of 11 letterwinners, including a pair of starters, from last year's team which posted the best turnaround in the nation in 2013-14. The Flames finished off a 26-9 season with the 2014 Women's Basketball Invitational title. Junior 6-3 forward Ruvanna Campbell averaged a double-double (17.1 points & 12.9 rebounds) per game last season for UIC.
In addition to the free ESPN3 video stream for Friday, WIRL 1290 AM will carry every Bradley women's basketball game during the 2014-15 season and a free audio stream of road games will be available (www.1290wirl.com). Live stats will be available at BradleyBraves.com.
Bradley is 6-4 in its last 10 games against Horizon League opponents and the Braves will face a squad from the Horizon League for the 15th consecutive year. In the last 19 matchups with current Horizon League members, Bradley owns an 11-8 mark and the Braves have at least one win against a Horizon League foe in nine of the last 10 seasons. Friday's game at UIC will be the first time Bradley played at a Horizon League school to open a season since kicking off the 2002-03 season with a victory at Butler.
The Braves hold a 14-5 lead in the all-time series with the Flames, but the teams have split the last six matchups with the home team winning each contest during that stretch. Bradley, which is 4-5 in road games at UIC, is trying to snap a three-game road losing streak in the series.
Senior Michelle Young (Woodbury, Minn./Woodbury) is the most experienced player on the Bradley roster and was an honorable mention All-Missouri Valley Conference selection last year. The fifth individual in program history with 400 points and 55 or more steals in a season in 2013-14, Young averaged 14.3 points per game as a junior and starts the year tied for 35th in school history with 713 career points.
Bradley returns to the Chicago area next week for the first back-to-back games in the Chicagoland area for the Braves since a 1993-94 tournament at Northwestern. Bradley will face defending Big East Conference champion and 2013-14 NCAA Sweet 16 team DePaul Tuesday, Nov. 18 (5:30 p.m.) at the Allstate Arena in Rosemont, Ill. The Blue Demons were ranked 18th in both the Associated Press and USA Today Coaches pre-season polls.
