PEORIA, Ill. -- The Bradley women's basketball team will try to complete a three-game sweep of Wichita State in a rare post-season meeting between the two long-time conference rivals as the Braves and Shockers play the opening game of the 2016 Missouri Valley Conference Women's Basketball Tournament Thursday at 4 p.m. at the iWireless Center in Moline, Ill.
Bradley played the first game of The Valley's first neutral site tournament back in 2007-08 at St. Charles, Mo., and the Braves will play in the first game this season as the MVC shifts to its new home in the Quad Cities. The winner of Thursday's opening round game between Bradley and Wichita State will advance to Friday's noon quarterfinal contest against regular-season league champion and #1 seed Northern Iowa.
Fans making the trip to Quad Cities for the MVC Tournament are encouraged to attend a send-off for the Bradley women's basketball team Thursday at 2:30 p.m. at the Radisson on John Deere Commons (1415 River Drive, Moline, IL). Following the send off, fans can attend a Bradley pre-game party at the Green Tree Brewery Lounge in the iWireless Center.
Notes | ESPN3 | WIRL 1290 AM/102.7 FM | Live Stats | Twitter Updates (@BradleySIDLive) |
Tournament Central | Tickets | Hotel Information | Bracket
All nine games of the MVC Tournament will be available on ESPN3 as part of The Valley On ESPN3 and can be viewed through WatchESPN.com and the WatchESPN app. WIRL 1290 AM/102.7 FM will carry Bradley's games in the Peoria area, while BradleyBraves.com will provide links to video and audio streams in addition to live stats.
Thursday's game between #9 seed Bradley and #8 Wichita State will be the first meeting between the two teams in the MVC Tournament since 1997 semifinals and just the second meeting in the conference tournament between the two squads. The Braves swept the regular-season series from the Shockers and will try to win three games against a team for the first time since claiming all three meetings with Southern Illinois in 2011-12. Bradley is 4-1 in their last five tournament openers against teams from outside the state of Illinois.
With both Bradley and Wichita State ranking among the top defensive teams in the MVC, a low scoring game is likely in Thursday's Valley Tournament opener. Neither squad scored more than 55 points in the two regular-season matchups and neither team has reached 70 points in the last five meetings. In fact, in the last 18 games in the series only five contests have featured at least one squad reaching the 70-point mark.
Sophomore Tamya Sims (Milwaukee, Wis./Oak Creek) collected 19 points, nine rebounds and four blocks in last year's MVC Tournament game against Loyola to lead the Braves. She enters the conference tournament with a league-high 58 blocked shots and is looking to become the first player to lead the Valley in blocks in back-to-back seasons since Bradley's own Sonya Harris in 2008-09 and 2009-10. Sims would be the first individual to lead the league in blocks as both a freshman and sophomore since Bradley Hall of Fame member Heather Best did so in 1995-96 and 1996-97.
The MVC Tournament move to the Quad Cities will be a homecoming for Bradley junior Leti Lerma (Muscatine, Iowa/Muscatine), who is Bradley's active career leader in scoring and rebounding. She is three boards short of 500 for her career and would be the 22nd player in program history with 500 points and 500 career rebounds. Currently 57th in career scoring at Bradley, Lerma is the team's top rebounder at 6.3 boards per game and is fourth on the squad in scoring at 7.7 per outing.
For tickets or other information about the 2016 MVC Women's Basketball Tournament visit - http://www.mvcquadcities.com/
