PEORIA, Ill. -- After opening the 2014-15 season at Illinois-Chicago Friday, the Bradley women's basketball team returns to the Chicago area Tuesday for a 5:30 p.m. game against 18th-ranked DePaul at Allstate Arena in Rosemont, Ill.
The Braves, who are opening the season with five games away from home for the first time since 1992-93, will play back-to-back games in the Chicago area for the first time since playing in a tournament at Northwestern during the 1993-94 campaign.
Tuesday's game will be the 14th in program history against a ranked opponent, with DePaul (2-1 overall) following up a season-opening 76-68 loss to fifth-ranked Texas A&M with a pair of convincing home wins Saturday (Texas-Pan American) and Sunday (New Mexico). The Blue Demons will be playing their fourth game in five days Tuesday against Bradley.
Ten of the previous 13 games in program history against ranked squads have been on the road and Tuesday's matchup is the first road game in the series for the Braves since Dec. 1, 1990. Bradley and DePaul will be meeting for the second straight year after a 22-year break in the all-time series, which dates back to 1978-79.
BradleyBraves.com will provide a link to live stats and the game will be carried locally on WIRL 1290 AM/102.7 FM.
Bradley has played 69 games against current Big East Conference members, but 68 of those contests came before those schools were members of the Big East including 46 with former Missouri Valley Conference foe Creighton. Tuesday's game will mark the fifth game against an active Big East Conference squad in program history with the Braves looking for their first win against a Big East team since topping Louisville in the opening round of the 2010 Women's Basketball Invitational.
The Braves had four new faces in the starting lineup Friday at Illinois-Chicago in the season opener. Freshman Tamya Sims (Milwaukee, Wis./Oak Creek) was the first freshman to lead the team in scoring in a season opener since Katie Yohn in 2009-10.
Sims was joined in the starting lineup by fellow freshmen Danielle Brewer (Coatesville, Ind.) and Anneke Schlueter (Ulm, Germany/Max-Weber-Schule) along with junior college transfer Sameia Kendall (Kansas City, Kan./Raytown/Johnson County). Bradley had four newcomers in the starting lineup of a season opener for the first time since 1984-85.
Tuesday's game is the second of a season-long five-game road swing as the Braves play back-to-back non-conference road games against in-state foes since winning at Eastern Illinois and Illinois in November 2012.
Bradley will continue the five-game road swing Friday as the Braves make the first trip in program history to the state of Oklahoma for a 7 p.m. game against the Oklahoma Sooners, which will be televised on Fox College Sports Central.
