PEORIA, Ill. -- The Bradley women's basketball team continues an eight-game home stand Saturday with a 2 p.m. contest against Southeastern Conference member Missouri at Renaissance Coliseum.
Missouri (5-1 overall) is the first SEC team to visit Renaissance Coliseum and the Braves will play a home game against a SEC foe for the first time since Kentucky played at Robertson Memorial Field House on Dec. 28, 1992. Bradley will play the Tigers for the fourth time in the last seven years and Saturday's game will mark the 12th overall meeting in the series.
Highlighting Saturday's promotions will be Kaboom!'s Holiday Party with kids invited to decorate sugar cookies prior to the 2 p.m. game. In addition, children can participate in a halftime gift exchange by bringing a wrapped toy ($10) with all participants receiving a gift. Fans are also encouraged to bring unwrapped toys to donate to the annual Toys For Tots drive.
A subscription video stream will be provided at BradleyBraves.com in addition to links for live stats and a free audio stream of the WIRL 1290 AM/102.7 FM broadcast.
Bradley will be playing back-to-back games against teams from the state of Missouri for the first time since 2009-10 after playing its home opener against Southeast Missouri State Sunday. Missouri (WNIT) will be Bradley's fifth opponent in seven outings this season which played in the postseason last year.
The Braves enter the month of December with a 6-2 record in December non-conference home games at Renaissance Coliseum and Bradley is 10-3 (.769) in non-conference home games in the month of December since the final season at Robertson Memorial Field House (2007-08). Bradley is 27-11 (.711) in December non-conference home tilts dating back to the 1994-96 campaign.
Sophomore Leti Lerma (Muscatine, Iowa/Muscatine) is coming off a career-high 21 points on 9-of-12 shooting Sunday against Southeast Missouri State and Lerma is a combined 14-for-20 from the field in her last two home games. She has averaged 10.7 points per game in her last seven home outings. Lerma was the first Brave to score at least 20 points and shoot 75 percent from the field in a game since Katie Yohn at Evansville on March 3, 2013 and she was the first Bradley player to do so in a home game since Kelsey Budd was 9-for-12, including 6-of-7 from three-point range, in a 25-point outing against Indiana State on Jan. 14, 2012.
Senior Michelle Young (Woodbury, Minn./Woodbury) has scored in double figures in five consecutive games and nine of the last 10. She is averaging a team-best 16.3 points per game this season and climbed into 29th in career scoring with 11 points Sunday against Southeast Missouri State. Young, who has 811 career points, is 20 points from moving into a four-way tie with Maureen Hogan, Michelle Nason and Leah Kassing for 25th in career scoring on The Hilltop.
The Braves played six games in 17 days to open the season, capping the busy opening stretch with Sunday's home opener against SEMO. Bradley, which will be playing the second game of an eight-game home stand Saturday vs. Missouri, will play five home games in the month of December which will match the highest number of December home contests since 2005-06 (5).
Saturday's game will be former Illinois State head coach Robin Pingeton's first trip to Central Illinois since she took over the head coaching duties at Missouri in 2010-11. Bradley faced former Illinois State head coach Stephanie Glance in the Nov. 26 game at Columbia and former Bradley assistant coach Ty Margenthaler's Southeast Missouri State squad was the home opening foe for the Braves Sunday afternoon.
After Saturday's contest against Missouri, Bradley will take on Western Illinois Tuesday, Tues., Dec. 9 (7 p.m.) at Renaissance Coliseum in the final game before finals for the Braves.
