PEORIA, Ill. -- The Bradley women's basketball team will play five of the next seven games at Renaissance Coliseum, opening the second half of the Missouri Valley Conference regular-season schedule Friday with a 7 p.m. home game against Indiana State.
The Braves have won two of their last three games and recently took two of a three-game MVC road swing for the first time since the 2009-10 campaign. Friday's game is the first of a two-game home stand and will feature a Peoria Musical Production performed by Danny Sinacori along with Bradley Ballroom and Swing Dancers at halftime.
A subscription video stream will be available at BradleyBraves.com (Bradley All-Access) in addition to live stats and an audio stream.
Bradley is scoring a league-high 23.6 percent of its points at the free throw line, but the Braves made just four trips to the charity stripe in Friday's 58-55 victory at Illinois State and have averaged just 10.0 free throw attempts in the last three games. The four free throw attempts vs. the Redbirds were the fewest for Bradley since having just three attempts at Indiana State on March 1, 2009 and the Braves won a game when taking fewer than five free throws for the first time since Feb. 24, 1979.
Senior Michelle Young (Woodbury, Minn./Woodbury), who was recently named a Senior CLASS Award candidate, is closing in on 1,000 career points at Bradley. Currently tied with former teammate Catie O'Leary for 18th on Bradley's all-time scoring chart at 966 points, Young is 15 points from passing Andrea McAllister for 17th and 34 points from reaching 1,000 points. In addition to nearing 1,000 points, Young is 41 points from breaking Katie Yohn's Renaissance Coliseum career scoring record of 479 points.
While Young is poised to climb Bradley's career scoring list, she is also closing in on the top 10 in school history in made free throws. She enters Friday's game 11th in school history with 251 career made free throws and is two behind Jenn Jolly for 10th in school history.
Sophomore Whitney Tinjum (Stacy, Minn./Chisago Lakes/Washington State) has scored 15 or more points in three straight games to raise her season scoring average to 13.3 points per game. Tinjum, who is shooting 86.4 percent from the free throw line, has averaged 15.7 points and 9.0 rebounds per game over the last three contests.
Junior guard Fantasia Vine (Wheaton, Ill./Wheaton North) has returned to the starting lineup for the last four games, shortly after missing the Jan. 12 game at Evansville due to illness. Serving as the team's primary ball handler the last four games, Vine has averaged 8.0 points, 5.3 rebounds, 5.0 assists and 1.8 steals per game in her last four starts.
Sophomore Leti Lerma (Muscatine, Iowa/Muscatine) has led Bradley on the glass in 2014-15 and has collected 11 or more rebounds in three of her last five outings. Lerma is averaging 6.5 boards per game on the year and hauled down 9.6 rebounds per game in her last five appearances.
Following Friday's game against Indiana State, the Braves close a two-game home stand Sunday with a 2 p.m. tilt with Evansville. Bradley will host a free post-game clinic for all children ages (6-14) following the matchup with the Purple Aces at Renaissance Coliseum.
