PEORIA, Ill. -- The Bradley women's basketball team will be trying for its third consecutive home victory Friday when the Braves host Southern Illinois in a 7 p.m. contest at Renaissance Coliseum, which is the second of a three-game home stand.
Friday will be Bradley Faculty/Staff Appreciation night with Bradley faculty and staff able to purchase tickets at half price. Bradley is coming off a 66-57 win against Loyola last Friday to open the final home stand of the season and can move within a game in the win column of seventh place in the MVC standings with a victory.
Southern Illinois is fifth in the Valley standings with an 8-7 league mark after an eight-point setback at home to league co-leader Wichita State Sunday. The Salukis are 6-5 on the road this season and play two of the final three games of the regular season on the road. SIU is 6-2 in its last eight games after opening the conference schedule with a 2-5 mark.
BradleyBraves.com will provide a subscription video stream in addition to links for live stats and audio stream of the WIRL 1290 AM/102.7 FM broadcast.
The Braves have won four of their last eight games, holding teams to 60.4 points per game during that stretch. Opponents have shot 38.4 percent from the field and 25.5 percent from three-point range during the recent eight-game span compared to 45.1 percent overall and 31.8 percent from beyond the arc in the first 17 games of the season. In addition to the defensive pressure, Bradley has averaged 38.4 rebounds per game and posted a +4.9 average rebounding margin in the last eight outings.
Freshman Tamya Sims (Milwaukee, Wis./Oak Creek) scored a season-high 16 points in last week's victory against Loyola and has averaged 10.3 points and 8.0 rebounds in her last three games. Sims, who is averaging 7.3 points and 5.9 boards per game on the year, has collected 7.8 points and 7.0 rebounds per game in her eight outings at Renaissance Coliseum this season.
Senior Michelle Young (Woodbury, Minn./Woodbury) has scored more points in her career against Southern Illinois than any other team, averaging 13.5 points per game against the Salukis. Young's 108 career points against SIU is fourth in the all-time series for Bradley and she needs 18 points to pass Raisa Taylor (125 points) as Bradley's all-time leading scorer in the Southern Illinois series. Young is just the third player in program history to make 30 or more free throws in her career against SIU. In addition, Young needs just two points to move into 16th in career scoring at Bradley and is 16 points from jumping up three spots into 14th all-time.
Sophomore Whitney Tinjum (Stacy, Minn./Chisago Lakes/Washington State) turned in her team-best third double-double of the year off the bench against Loyola last week, finishing with 14 points and 10 boards. Tinjum pushed her season scoring total over 200 points as she became the 11th player in school history to score 200 or more points in their first 17 games on The Hilltop. The last Brave to reach 200 points in their first 17 games was Missouri transfer Stephanie White in 1998-99.
Following Friday's game against Southern Illinois, Bradley closes out the home schedule Sunday at 2 p.m. against I-74 rival Illinois State.
