Braves Close Non-Conference Slate Thursday At UIC

Bob Hunt - Photographer

Women's Basketball 12/21/2016 1:00:00 PM

PEORIA, Ill. – Fresh off a 67-56 victory at Valparaiso Monday, the Bradley women's basketball team will close out the 2016-17 non-conference schedule Thursday with a 1 p.m. game at Illinois-Chicago in the second consecutive game against a team from the Horizon League.

Bradley will finish the non-conference slate before Christmas for the first time since 2012-13 and will try to finish the non-Valley schedule with a victory for the first time since 2011-12. The Braves are 2-1 against teams from the Horizon League after Monday's win at Valparaiso and Bradley's last season with two or more wins against Horizon League teams was 2007-08. A victory Thursday against the Flames would mark the first time Bradley won three games against Horizon League squads since 2004-05 (3-0).

Thursday's game 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.

The last time Bradley closed out the non-conference portion of the schedule with a road victory was a 72-66 win at Saint Louis in 2009-10 and the Braves are 6-3 the last nine times they played the last non-conference game prior to Christmas. In fact, Bradley is 9-4 all-time when the last non-league game falls before the holidays.

Chicago has been a frequent non-conference stop for the Braves over the years with the team owning a 17-11 (.607) record in Chicago since the 1983-84 season, which includes a 16-9 (.640) mark in non-conference games. Overall, Bradley is 27-18 (.600) all-time in games played in the Windy City.

Junior Anneke Schlueter (Ulm, Germany/Max-Weber-Schule) made 10-of-10 free throw attempts and scored a career-high 23 points to help highlight Monday's win at Valparaiso. Schlueter is the 11th player in program history to make 10 or more free throws in a game without a miss and her performance was the 12th in school history. The first Bradley player to make 10 free throws with a miss was first-year Bradley head coach Andrea Gorski (10-for-10) vs. Miami (Ohio) on Dec. 2, 1991.

Schlueter, who is eighth in the MVC in scoring at 12.5 points per game, has scored in double figures in eight consecutive games for the longest streak by a Brave since Leah Kassing in 2011-12. Over the last 14 seasons only seven Bradley players have scored in double figures in eight or more consecutive contests.

Freshman Chelsea Brackmann (New Berlin, Wis./Eisenhower) has scored in double figures in two of three games since returning from an injury and has averaged 13.3 points, 4.0 rebounds, 1.3 assists and 1.3 blocks while shooting 54 percent from the field in those games.

Junior guard Shareece Burrell (Des Moines, Iowa/East) has started the last two games and has increased her production. Burrell has started six games this season, but has averaged 5.5 points on 69.2 percent shooting in her last four starts to go with 4.8 rebounds and 2.5 assists per outing.

Senior Leti Lerma (Muscatine, Iowa/Muscatine) enters Thursday's game on the cusp of breaking into Bradley's career top 10 in rebounding. The top rebounder in the MVC at 8.9 boards per game, she is 11th in school history with 609 career rebounds and is seven short of tying for Kelly Krumwiede (2005-09) for 10th all-time on The Hilltop.

Following Thursday's game, Bradley will have a break for the holidays before opening the Missouri Valley Conference schedule Sunday, Jan. 1 at I-74 rival Illinois State.

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