Women’s Basketball Returns Home

Duane Zehr

Women's Basketball 1/10/2018 3:15:00 PM

PEORIA, Ill. – One of two unbeaten teams in Missouri Valley Conference play, Bradley (9-5 overall, 3-0 MVC) returns home for a brief two-game home stand with contests Friday (Southern Illinois) and Missouri State (Sunday) at Renaissance Coliseum as the Braves try to match the best conference start in program history.

Bradley is 3-0 in Valley play after road wins at Illinois State (62-42), Loyola (59-57) and Valparaiso (88-69) for the fourth 3-0 start to conference action in school history. The Braves will be trying to match their best conference start of 4-0 (2008-09) in Friday's 7 p.m. matchup with Southern Illinois (8-7 overall, 3-1 MVC).

Friday will be Family Night at Renaissance Coliseum with a free Bounce House from Fun on the Run available for children in attendance.

Currently a half-game behind defending MVC champion Drake (4-0) in the MVC standings, Bradley concludes the home stand with a Sunday matinee (2 p.m.) against Missouri State (7-8 overall, 3-1 MVC). Both SIU and Missouri State head into the weekend a half-game behind the Braves in the standings at 3-1.

Both games 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

In addition to bringing a perfect conference record into Friday's outing, Bradley is riding a four-game win streak, which is tied for the longest in the Missouri Valley Conference this season. The four-game win streak is the longest for the Braves since winning the final five non-conference games of the 2011-12 season.

Second-year head coach Andrea Gorski has been involved in three of Bradley's four 3-0 conference starts with BU opening league play 3-0 both her freshman (1990-91) and junior (1990-91) seasons. The Braves opened the 2008-09 Valley campaign with a 4-0 mark for the best conference start in program history and went on to finish fourth in the MVC standings at 11-7 that year.

The weekend home stand kicks off a stretch in which Bradley will play six of the next eight at home. The Braves swept a three-game MVC road swing for the first time in program history and have played nine of the last 12 away from home. Bradley is 4-1 at Renaissance Coliseum this season and 9-2 over the last 11 home games dating back to last season, which includes a 5-1 record against Valley opponents.

While Bradley trails the all-time series with Southern Illinois, the Braves are 7-3 in the last 10 home contests against the Salukis. In fact, BU is 11-5 at home over the last 16 seasons against SIU.

Bradley swept the regular-season series with Missouri State last year and the teams have split the last 12 meetings in Peoria. The last three matchups between the Braves and Bears have been decided by six points or less and seven of the last 11 in the series have had a final margin of six points or fewer.

Senior Danielle Brewer has scored eight or more points in six of the last eight contests and is averaging a team-best 15.7 points in MVC play after a career-best 22 points on 7-of-8 shooting to highlight Sunday's victory at Valparaiso. The first Brave to make at least seven field goals with just one miss since Raisa Taylor was 7-for-8 in a 22-point effort at Western Illinois on Dec. 7, 2010, Brewer is shooting 60 percent from the field against Valley opponents and has taken 46 percent of her free throw attempts on the year in the last three games.

Defense and limiting turnovers have been key for the Braves this season with the scoring defense (61.4 ppg) ranking as Bradley's best since holding teams to just 55.7 points per contest in 1978-79. BU has averaged just 11.3 turnovers through three Valley games and the team's 15.2 turnovers per game would rank as the best total in school history.

Bradley is coming off arguably its best offensive outing of the season, however, matching a season-best with 88 points and shooting a season-high 50.8 percent in the win at Valparaiso Sunday. The 88 points marks the highest point total for the Braves against a Valley opponent since a 100-96 double overtime setback at Southern Illinois on Jan. 2, 2014. In fact, the last time the Braves scored 88 or more points in a regulation road game was a 95-83 win at Northern Arizona in 2012-13 and BU reached 88 points in a regulation Valley road game for the first time since a 93-65 win at Evansville Jan. 19, 1995.

The Braves will follow up Sunday's game against Missouri State with a two-game road swing which starts Friday, Jan. 19 at Indiana State (6 p.m. CST).

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