Road Swing Continues At Western Michigan & Valparaiso

Barathwaj Rudraboina

Women's Basketball 12/15/2016 9:30:00 AM

PEORIA, Ill. – After an 11-day break from competition for finals, Bradley Women's Basketball will resume a stretch of seven consecutive road games when the Braves play at Western Michigan Saturday afternoon in addition to a Monday night matchup at Valparaiso.

Bradley will play its first game since opening a seven-game road swing Monday, Dec. 5 at Western Illinois with Saturday's trip to Kalamazoo, Mich., marking the third trip in the last six seasons to the Great Lakes state for the Braves. Western Michigan (7-2 overall) and Bradley will tip off at 1 p.m. (CST) in the first road game in the series for the Braves since December 1998.

Following Saturday's outing, Bradley will stay on the road for a Monday night (7 p.m.) tilt at Valparaiso. The Braves, who will play four games in the state of Indiana for the first time since 2006-07, will square off with the Crusaders (5-5 overall) for the first time since that same 2006-07 campaign. Valparaiso is the third of four Horizon League opponents on the schedule for Bradley, which will wrap up the non-conference slate Thursday, Dec. 22 at Illinois-Chicago.

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.

Bradley's last break of 11 days or more fell during the 2013-14 season and the Braves are 3-0 in the first game following a break of 11 days or more during the non-conference slate dating back to the 2006-07 season.

Saturday's game at Western Michigan wraps up the toughest stretch of the non-conference schedule, with the Broncos marking the sixth consecutive opponent which boasts a winning record through games of Dec. 12. In fact, counting Western Michigan Bradley's last four opponents have combined for a 28-9 (.757) mark through Wednesday and the last six foes were an impressive 40-15 (.727) heading into the week.

Freshman forward Chelsea Brackmann (New Berlin, Wis./Eisenhower) scored a season-high 19 points on 7-of-10 shooting off the bench at Western Illinois in her first game back after missing the Dec. 2 home game against Northern Illinois due to an injury. Brackmann has averaged 9.8 points per game in her last five outings, while averaging 1.8 blocks and 1.2 steals per contest during that span. She is second in the MVC in free throw attempts per game (6.0).

Fellow freshman Alona Johnson (Milwaukee, Wis./Riverside) is also coming off her strongest outing of the young season at Western Illinois. Johnson tallied season highs of nine points, seven rebounds, five assists and four steals off the bench as she helped the Bradley reserves account for 45 of Bradley's 77 points at Western Illinois on 16-for-28 shooting (57 percent).

Johnson was the first Brave with nine points, seven boards, five assists and four steals in a game since Katie Yohn at Missouri State on Feb. 8, 2013 and the last Bradley player to reach those numbers off the bench for Bradley was Felicia Brown against Lewis on Dec. 15, 1984.

Following Monday's game at Valparaiso, Bradley will conclude the non-conference schedule Thursday, Dec. 22 with a 1 p.m. game at Illinois-Chicago.

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