Women’s Basketball Opens Home Slate With Detroit & Saint Louis

Bob Hunt - Photographer

Women's Basketball 11/16/2016 2:00:00 PM

PEORIA, Ill. – First-year Bradley women's basketball head coach Andrea Gorski and the Braves will open the 2016-17 home slate and a season-long, five-game home stand Friday (11 a.m.) against Detroit in addition to hosting Atlantic 10 Conference favorite Saint Louis Sunday afternoon (2 p.m.) at Renaissance Coliseum.

Bradley is coming off a 58-56 setback at Butler Sunday after the Bulldogs hit the game-winning shot with 0.3 seconds remaining on the clock. The Braves had rallied from 16 points down to take a four-point lead in the closing minutes of the fourth quarter before a late push by Butler.

Friday's matchup with Detroit will be Field Trip Day presented by Prairie Farms with area school children attending the special 11 a.m. contest. Children in attendance will receive a workbook with puzzles, games and world problems which focus on leading a healthy lifestyle, nutrition, character building and dealing with bullying. Detroit is 1-1 on the year after winning at Delaware State 90-71 to open the year and suffering an 83-81 overtime loss at East Carolina Sunday.

Both 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 (www.1290wirl.com) radio broadcast with Ed Hammond providing play-by-play.

Saint Louis, which is receiving votes in both the USA Today Coaches Poll and AP Top 25, is 2-0 on the year heading into a Thursday afternoon home tilt with SIU Edwardsville. The Billikens won a share of the Atlantic 10 Conference regular-season title last season and are the 2016-17 A10 preseason favorites.

The Braves are 5-3 in their last eight home openers and own a 28-13 (.683) all-time record in home opening contests. Bradley will host Field Trip Day for the fifth consecutive year, with the four previous Field Trip Day crowds ranking among the top six crowds in Renaissance Coliseum history.

In addition to returning three starters from last year's team in senior Leti Lerma (Muscatine, Iowa/Muscatine) and the junior combo of Danielle Brewer (Coatesville, Ind.) and Anneke Schlueter (Ulm, Germany, Max-Weber-Schule), Bradley has gotten solid contributions off the bench in the first two games of 2016-17.

Freshman Chelsea Brackmann (New Berlin, Wis./Eisenhower) is averaging 7.5 points and 4.0 rebounds per game and collected 10 points and six boards in the season opener at Kent State last Friday. Brackmann was just the 12th Bradley freshman to score in double figures in her debut and was the fourth freshman in program history to collect at least 10 points and six rebounds in their first outing as a Brave.

Junior Madison Dellamuth (Cedar Rapids, Iowa/Prairie) helped spark Bradley's rally at Butler, entering the game with the Braves trailing by 16 points and going on to score a career-high 19 points on 6-of-9 shooting. Dellamuth had seven points in the second quarter alone to match what was her previous career high. She had scored a total of nine points during the entire 2015-16 season.

Friday's game against Detroit is the first of four games on the 2016-17 schedule for Bradley against Horizon League teams. The Braves will play at least one game against a team from the Horizon League for the 17th consecutive year and Bradley has at least one victory against a Horizon League foe in nine of the last 11 seasons.

Following Sunday's game against Saint Louis, Bradley will have a week off from competition before returning the court Sunday, Nov. 27 for a 5 p.m. contest against Eureka at Renaissance Coliseum.

Print Friendly Version