PEORIA, Ill. – After closing out a four-game Missouri Valley Conference home stand with a 54-41 victory over Indiana State Sunday, the Bradley Women's Basketball team will put its three-game win streak on the line this weekend when the Braves face the top two teams in the MVC on the road Friday (Northern Iowa) and Sunday (Drake). 
 
The Braves (9-13 overall, 5-6 MVC) have won four of their last five games and enter the weekend in a three-way tie with Indiana State and Southern Illinois for fifth in the league standings.  Bradley's 5-6 start to Valley play is the team's best start to the league slate since 2009-10.
 
Winners of two their last three road games, Bradley will face second-place Northern Iowa (16-6 overall, 9-2 MVC) Friday at 7 p.m. in Cedar Falls, Iowa, before traveling to Des Moines, Iowa, for a Sunday afternoon (2 p.m.) matchup with league-leading Drake (18-4 overall, 11-0 MVC). 
 
Both 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.
 
Bradley is 2-1 in its last three road games and the team's three road losses in league play have all been one-possession contests in the final two minutes of regulation.  This weekend's contests are against the top two scoring teams in the MVC, but the Braves have limited their last three opponents to 46.0 points per game and the last five teams have combined to score just 55.4 points.  In fact, Bradley has limited three consecutive opponents to 52 points or fewer for the first time since February of 2002. 
 
During Bradley's three-game win streak the Braves have held opponents to 31.2 percent shooting and Bradley has dominated the glass, averaging 50.7 rebounds per game with a +17.0 average rebounding margin. 
 
Junior Danielle Brewer (Coatesville, Ind.) scored a career-high 18 points off the bench to help highlight Sunday's victory over Indiana State.  All four of her double-digit scoring outings this season have been when she comes off the bench.  As a reserve, Brewer is averaging 9.6 points per game and the Braves are 6-5 in those contests, compared to 3.9 points per game when she starts and a 1-6 record.  Over the last two seasons, she has averaged 8.3 points per game coming off the bench (17 games) vs. 5.2 points per outing in her 32 starts. 
 
Senior Leti Lerma (Muscatine, Iowa/Muscatine) has had 15 or more rebounds in each of the last three games and her 13 outings with 10 or more boards are the most by a Brave since 2009-10.  Lerma is the first player in program history to collect at least 225 points, 200 rebounds, 30 assists, 10 blocks and 25 or more steals in back-to-back seasons.  She enters the weekend third in career rebounding at Bradley with 752 in her three-plus seasons and needs 48 to pass Dena Williams for the top spot in school history. 
 
Bradley went with a big lineup to start Sunday's game at Indiana State, with the duo of sophomore Vanessa Markert (Mt. Sterling, Ill./Brown County) and freshman Chelsea Brackmann (New Berlin, Wis./Eisenhower) appearing in the starting lineup together for the first time.  Markert has averaged 13.0 points per game on 58 percent shooting over the last six games, while Brackmann's 144 rebounds this season are the most by a Bradley freshman since 2002-03. 
 
Following the weekend road swing through the Hawkeye State, Bradley returns home to host Missouri State Friday, Feb. 17 (7 p.m.) in the team's Play4Kay game.