MOLINE, Ill. – Bradley will face #2 seed Northern Iowa in Friday's 6 p.m. Missouri Valley Conference Women's Basketball quarterfinal at the iWireless Center after topping #10 seed Loyola 57-42 Thursday in the opening round. 

 

• Bradley's 57-42 opening-round victory over #10 seed Loyola Thursday advanced the Braves to the MVC Tournament quarterfinals for the second consective year.  This year's quarterfinal contest against #2 seed Northern Iowa will feature a rematch of last season's quarterfinal in which the Panthers edged Bradley 46-45.  The Braves are in the quarterfinals in back-to-back seasons for the first time since a four-year stretch between 2008-09 and 2011-12.  A victory over Northern Iowa would send Bradley to its first MVC Tournament semifinal appearance since 2008-09 and sixth overall. 

 

• Northern Iowa won both regular-season matchups with Bradley to take a 38-34 advantage in the all-time series.  UNI has won 11 consecutive matchups with the Braves dating back to a 76-61 win at Renaissance Coliseum on Feb. 17, 2012.  Friday's contest will mark the fifth time the two teams will meet in the MVC Tournament, with UNI winning in the quarterfinals of the event in 2016 (Moline, Ill.), 2011 (St. Charles, Mo.), 2010 (St. Charles, Mo.) and 2003 (Des Moines, Iowa). 

 

• Three of the last four times the #7 seed has won the opening round matchup with the #10 seed that team has gone on to reach the semifinals, with all three instances in the last six seasons.  Bradley is 2-2 all-time as the #7 seed in the MVC Tournament after Thursday's victory over Loyola and will be trying to reach the semifinals as the #7 seed for the first time.  The last #7 seed to advance to the semifinals was Evansville (2015).  The 2012 Drake team reached the championship as the the #7 seed, while the 2011 Indiana State team (#7 seed) came five points from reaching the championship game. 

 

• Senior Leti Lerma had 10 or more rebounds in one half of play for the fifth time Thursday vs. Loyola (10 in the first half) en route to her 12th double-double of the season (14 points & rebounds).  Lerma broke the Bradley single season rebounding mark of 308 set by Sonya Harris in 2009-10 and her 312 boards this season rank 16th among MVC marks.  She needs 13 rebounds to push her season total among the Valley's top 10.  Her 14 rebounds against Loyola broke her own school MVC Tournament game record of 13 set in last year's quarterfinal setback to Northern Iowa and she holds the Bradley career MVC Tournament rebounding mark with 45.  Lerma's 17 games this season with 10 or more rebounds is third in school history and just two off the record set by Carrie Coffman in 1994-95. 

 

• Muscatine, Iowa, native Leti Lerma turned in her third double-double in as many games at the iWireless Center with her 14 point and 14 rebound effort against Loyola Thursday.  Lerma has averaged 13.3 points, 12.3 rebounds, 2.7 assists and 2.7 steals per game in three career games in the Quad Cities.  Her 12 double-doubles this season are tied with Eileen Yerkes (1991-92) for the second most in school history behind Carrie Coffman's school mark of 20 set in 1994-95. 

 

• Thursday's 57-42 opening round victory over Loyola made first-year Bradley head coach Andrea Gorski one of just two coaches in program history to win a MVC Tournament game in their first season on The Hilltop.  The only other Bradley coach to win their debut game at the Valley Tournament was Donna Freitag during the 1996-97 with a 53-52 quarterfinal victory at Missouri State, which was the first MVC Tournament victory in program history. 

 

• Freshman Chelsea Brackmann provided a big boost off the bench in Thursday's win, collecting seven points, seven rebounds, six assists and three blocks in just 18 minutes.  Brackmann, who is one of two freshmen in the country this season and the only MVC freshman in the last 20 years with 230 points, 190 rebounds, 45 assists, 30 blocks and 15 steals, was the first Bradley player to collect six assists and three blocks in a game since Raisa Taylor tallied 21 points, 10 boards, six assists, three blocks and a pair of steals in a 69-59 win at Louisville in the opening round of the 2010 WBI.

 

• Junior guard Danielle Brewer scored six of her 13 points in the opening quarter of Thursday's victory over Loyola and finished one rebound short of her first career double-double.  Brewer has scored in double figures in four consecutive games after topping 10 points in just five of her first 22 appearances of the season.  She has hit two or more three pointers in three straight games and four of the last six overall.  Bradley is 6-2 this season when she connects on at least two shots from beyond the arc.  Over the last nine games she is the second leading scorer on the squad at 10.8 points per game behind senior Leti Lerma (15.6 ppg) and has shot 51.9 percent (15-of-29) from three-point range. 

 

• The winner of Friday's quarterfinal game between #2 seed Northern Iowa and #7 seed Bradley will advance to Saturday's 4 p.m. semifinal against the winner of Friday's final quarterfinal between #3 seed Missouri State and #6 Evansville.  The Braves swept the regular-season series from Missouri State and the teams would be meeting in the Valley Tournament for the first time since the 2012 quarterfinals.  Bradley and Evansville split the regular-season series and a matchup would mark the first meeting in the MVC Tournament since the 2011 opening round.