PEORIA, Ill. -- The Bradley women's basketball team continues a five-game road swing with the program's first trip to the state of Oklahoma Friday for a 7 p.m. matchup with Big 12 Conference power Oklahoma. Friday's game from Norman, Okla., will be televised on Fox College Sports Central.
The Braves are looking for their first victory of the year after opening the season with a pair of road setbacks, with the most recent coming at the hands of 18th-ranked DePaul Tuesday at Allstate Arena in Rosemont, Ill. Bradley nearly had back-to-back games against ranked teams with Oklahoma (2-0 overall) receiving 24 points in the latest Associated Press poll and 11 points in this week's USA Today Coaches ranking.
Friday's matchup is the first against a Big 12 Conference foe for the Braves since a Dec. 8, 2009 home game against then conference member Missouri. Bradley has not had many games with Big 12 squads, with Friday's contest marking the first matchup against a Big 12 team other than Missouri since a Dec. 3, 1997 game at Nebraska. The Braves have played just three games against current Big 12 programs with the last falling on Nov. 24, 1996 at home against Kansas State.
BradleyBraves.com will provide a link to live stats for Friday's game, which will be the first meeting between Bradley and Oklahoma. In addition to the television coverage on Fox College Sports Central, the game will be carried locally on WIRL 1290 AM/102.7 FM.
Freshman Madison Dellamuth (Cedar Rapids, Iowa/Prairie) made her first career start Tuesday at DePaul and joined three other freshmen in the starting lineup. Bradley had not had four freshmen start at least one game in the same season since 1988-89 and the Braves had four freshmen in the starting lineup for the first time on record.
Dellamuth joined fellow freshman Danielle Brewer (Coatesville, Ind.), Anneke Schlueter (Ulm, Germany/Max-Weber-Schule) and Tamya Sims (Milwaukee, Wis./Oak Creek) in the starting lineup with the trio each starting the first games of the season. Brewer, Schlueter and Sims are the first freshmen to start the first two games of a season since Michelle Lund made 23 consecutive starts to open the 2008-09 campaign.
Oklahoma is Bradley's third consecutive opponent which advanced to the postseason last year, with the Sooners making their 15th consecutive NCAA Tournament. OU has advanced to nine Sweet 16's and three Final Fours during their 15-year streak of NCAA Tournament appearances.
Bradley's first three opponents have started the year off strong, with the group owning a 7-1 record through Nov. 19. The lone loss among the three foes was by DePaul in the season opener to fifth-ranked Texas A&M. Oklahoma opened the season with a 90-80 home win against Washington and followed it up with a 100-73 victory against Lamar Tuesday.
The Braves struggled from three-point range in the season-opening loss at Illinois-Chicago, but junior Fantasia Vine (Wheaton, Ill./Wheaton) helped Bradley dial in from distance by making 3-of-5 from beyond the arc Tuesday at DePaul and finished with a team-high 13 points off the bench. Bradley hit seven three-pointers against the Blue Demons for the team's highest total since a season-opening win against Illinois in 2013-14. The Braves had seven three-pointers or more in a road game and five individuals with at least one trey for the first time since a Feb. 8, 2013 game at Missouri State.
After Friday's game at Oklahoma, Bradley travels to the state of New York for the first time since 2002-03, continuing the five-game road swing Monday with a 6 p.m. (CST) game at Stony Brook.
