PEORIA, Ill. -- The Bradley women's basketball team will close out the non-conference portion of the 2014-15 schedule and play the final contest of the calendar year, Tuesday, when the Braves host in-state foe Northern Illinois for a 7 p.m. game at Renaissance Coliseum.
Tuesday's game is the sixth of a school record eight-game home stand, equaling the longest home stand in program history (1993-94) and is the second of back-to-back games against teams from the Mid-American Conference.
A subscription video stream will be available at BradleyBraves.com along with links to live stats and an audio feed of the WIRL 1290 AM/102.7 FM broadcast.
Bradley will be the third Missouri Valley Conference opponent for Northern Illinois (3-6 overall) this season with the Huskies splitting their last four games following a 51-42 loss at Northern Iowa on Dec. 21. The Braves and NIU will be playing for the ninth consecutive year with the teams splitting the last eight matchups, but Bradley has won three of the last four in the series.
Tuesday's game is the latest regular-season non-conference game for Bradley since a Jan. 16, 1997 home contest against Western Illinois and the Braves will wrap up the non-conference portion of the schedule against an in-state for the fifth consecutive year.
Bradley has usually concluded the non-conference slate on a high note, boasting a 22-9 (.710) record in the final regular-season non-conference game of the year. In fact, the Brave are 14-3 (.824) all-time when playing the final non-conference game of the year at home.
Sophomore Whitney Tinjum (Stacy, Minn./Chisago Lakes/Washington State) collected a double-double last time out against Bowling Green (15 points & 11 rebounds) and has scored in double figures in each of her first two games as a Brave. Tinjum is the 16th player in program history to score 10 or more points in each of their first two contests on The Hilltop and could be the ninth to do so in their first three games at Bradley.
Freshman Danielle Brewer (Coatesville, Ind.) has emerged as one of Bradley's top outside scoring threats, connecting on 6-of11 three-point attempts over the last four games. She is shooting a team-best 38.1 percent from beyond the arc this season and is 7-for-13 from long range over the last seven outings. In her last three games, Brewer has averaged 8.7 points, 5.3 rebounds, 2.0 assists and 2.0 steals.
Fellow freshman Anneke Schlueter (Ulm, Germany/Max-Weber-Schule) is the only player to start all 10 games this season. Schlueter, who is averaging 7.2 points and 1.5 assists per game, is just the fifth freshmen since 1990-91 to start the first 10 games of their Bradley career.
Senior Michelle Young (Woodbury, Minn./Woodbury) came off the bench against Bowling Green due to illness to tie for game-high honors with 15 points. Young is second in the MVC in steals at 2.6 per game and has climbed into 22nd in school history with 881 career points. She is 19 points from reaching the 900-point mark and 45 points from breaking into the top 20 in Bradley history.
The Braves have held their last four opponents to 65.5 points per game and forced an average of 24.5 turnovers per contest during that stretch. In addition to the better defensive effort, Bradley has taken care of the ball during that span; committing just 16.5 turnovers per outing.
Following Tuesday's game against Northern Illinois, the Braves will open Missouri Valley Conference play Friday, Jan. 2 with a 7 p.m. game against Northern Iowa at Renaissance Coliseum.
