Women’s Basketball Opens Valley Play At Illinois State

Duane Zehr, Bradley University ITPS

Women's Basketball 12/30/2017 9:00:00 AM

PEORIA, Ill. – For the second consecutive year Bradley Women's Basketball opens the Missouri Valley Conference schedule at I-74 rival Illinois State, with the Braves and Redbirds facing off on New Year's Eve in an 11 a.m. contest at Redbird Arena.

Both Bradley and Illinois State finished the non-conference portion of the schedule with 6-5 records. The Braves capped the non-league slate in dramatic fashion, rallying from 18 points down to defeat defending Summit League champion Western Illinois 87-80 for the team's largest comeback victory since Nov. 2013 (at Southeast Missouri State).

The victory against Western Illinois gave Bradley its best non-conference record since 2012-13 (6-5). The Braves enter Valley play ranked 121 in the latest RPI (through games of Dec. 28), second in the MVC behind Northern Iowa (106) and faced the 75^th toughest schedule in the country to date with the 10 NCAA Division I foes combining for a 73-50 record through Dec. 28. Illinois State will mark the fourth consecutive Bradley opponent with a winning record as the last three games have come against squads combining for an impressive 29-8 (.783) mark.

Thursday's game will be available on ESPN3 as part of the MVC media rights agreement with ESPN. The Valley On ESPN3 can be viewed through WatchESPN.com and the WatchESPN app. In addition, Ed Hammond will handle the radio broadcast on WIRL 1290 AM with links to the audio stream available at BradleyBraves.com

Bradley and Illinois State have split the regular-season series each of the last two years with the home squad winning each matchup. The Braves are 6-2 against the Redbirds over the last four seasons, however, and BU has claimed seven of the last nine regular-season games in the series. Three of the last four games at Redbird Arena have had a final margin of five points or less with last year's road game in the series the lone exception during that span.

Sunday's game is the first matchup in the recently announced "Battle for Illinois" rivalry series which features the four MVC teams from Illinois (Bradley, Illinois State, Loyola & Southern Illinois). Both men's and women's basketball teams from the four institutions can earn one point in the new rivalry series with a victory in each head-to-head matchup during the 2017-18 season. The Braves will play two of the first 12 games in the series, following up Sunday's outing with a Jan. 5 game at Loyola.

Freshman Gabi Haack helped highlight Thursday's win against Western Illinois with a season-best 26 points. Haack, who tied the Bradley single game record with eight three-pointers, made her last seven three-point attempts and now has a team-best 20 three-pointers on the year. Her 20 three-pointers is tied for the eighth-best season total by a Bradley freshman and she is shooting 19-for-43 (44.2 percent) from three-point range over the last nine contests. The last Bradley freshman to score at least 26 points in a game was Raisa Taylor, who had a 28-point outing at Southern Illinois on Feb. 28, 2008.

Haack added 10 rebounds in her first career start for her first double-double as a Brave, but she wasn't the only Bradley player to turn in a double-double as sophomore Chelsea Brackmann added 20 points and 12 rebounds off the bench. The last time the Braves had two individuals with double-doubles in the same game was a home victory against Southern Illinois on Feb. 4, 2012 (Mackenzie Westcott & Leah Kassing).

Senior Anneke Schlueter is also coming off an impressive performance after she tallied 15 points, five rebounds and career highs of seven assists, three blocks and five steals against the Leathernecks Thursday. Schlueter's effort was the first game by a Brave with 15 points, five rebounds, seven assists and at least five steals since Heather Best against Western Michigan on Nov. 16, 1997. Based on available box scores in the Bradley Athletics archives, Schlueter is the first player in program history to also have three blocks in addition to the 15 points, five boards, seven assists and five steals in a game. Bradley's active career scoring leader, Schlueter is averaging 2.4 assists per game this season and owns a 2.17 assist-to-turnover ratio.

Sunday's game is the first of a three-game road swing to open Missouri Valley Conference play for the Braves, with Bradley continuing the stretch Friday, Jan. 5 at Loyola.

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