PEORIA, Ill. -- The Bradley women's basketball team returns to Renaissance Coliseum after playing seven of the last 10 games on the road to open a season-long, four-game home stand Friday with a 7 p.m. against Drake.
Bradley (5-13 overall, 1-6 MVC) will be opening a season-long, four-game home stand and a rare four-game Missouri Valley Conference home stand against the Bulldogs. The Braves have had four previous four-game conference home stands, but this year's is the first in Valley play since concluding the 1993-94 regular season with six consecutive MVC contests. The home stand wraps up Sunday, Feb. 7 with Bradley playing six of the next eight at Renaissance Coliseum.
Drake (12-6 overall, 5-2 MVC) has won five of its last six games and is tied for third in the MVC standings at 5-2 after a 79-73 loss to league-leading Northern Iowa Sunday. The Bulldogs average a conference-best 80.0 points per contest and also lead The Valley in scoring margin, free throw percentage, field goal percentage and assists.
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Friday's games will be available on ESPN3 as part of The Valley On ESPN3 and can be viewed through WatchESPN.com and the WatchESPN app. In addition, BradleyBraves.com will provide links to live stats along with the WIRL 1290 AM/102.7 FM (www.1290wirl.com) radio broadcast with Ed Hammond providing play-by-play.
The Braves, who rank fourth in the MVC in scoring defense, are holding Missouri Valley Conference opponents to 59.4 points per outing and visiting teams have averaged just 61.2 points per game at Renaissance Coliseum this year. Bradley has limited each of the last five opponents to less than 65 points, marking the first time since a six-game stretch during the 2009-10 campaign the Braves had five or more outings in which the held foes to 65 or fewer.
Over the last five games opponents have scored 54.8 points per game and the Braves have forced an average of 19.4 turnovers during that span. Bradley's 63.1 points per game allowed would be the team's best scoring defense since allowing just 61.8 points per game during the 1979-80 season.
Junior Whitney Tinjum (Stacy, Minn./Chisago Lakes/Washington State) scored at least 18 points in each of last year's matchups with Drake and enters Friday's game averaging 19.0 points and 8.0 rebounds against the Bulldogs in her career. Tinjum has scored in double figures in five of the last eight games and a total of nine times this season. She has had 10 or more points each of the seven games she has attempted at least four free throws in 2015-16 and has scored in double figures when she has a minimum of four free throw attempts in 16 of 17 games as a Brave.
Despite playing just 18 home games in her career, sophomore Tamya Sims (Milwaukee, Wis./Oak Creek) owns a Renaissance Coliseum career record 36 blocked shots. She is second in the Valley in blocks (1.9 per game) this season and her 79 career rejections are four from breaking into the top 10 in school history. Sims has 79 career blocks, which ranks as the fourth-best career total by a Bradley underclassman.
The Braves will continue a four-game home stand Sunday with a 2 p.m. game against Northern Iowa. Head coach Michael Brooks will have a pre-game “Chalk Talk” at 1:15 p.m. and Bradley will host a free post-game kids clinic open to all children eighth grade and under.
