Braves Look To Keep Road Win Streak Going

Duane Zehr

Women's Basketball 1/17/2018 12:54:00 PM

PEORIA, Ill. -- Bradley Women's Basketball looks to rebound from a pair of close home losses on the road where the Braves will try to keep a three-game road win streak alive with contests at Indiana State (Friday) and at Evansville (Sunday).

A one-point loss to Southern Illinois last Friday and six-point setback to second-place Missouri State dropped Bradley (9-7 overall, 3-2 MVC) to fifth in the Missouri Valley Conference standings. The current three-game road win streak is the longest for the Braves since winning eight consecutive road contests between the end of the 2010-11 season and 2011-12 campaign.

Bradley puts the road win streak to the test Friday in a 6 p.m. (CST) game at Indiana State (3-13 overall, 1-4 MVC). The Braves and Sycamores split the regular-season series last year with BU posting a 54-41 win at Renaissance Coliseum after suffering an overtime loss to the Sycamores in Terre Haute, Ind.

Sunday's 1 p.m. tilt at Evansville will be the first time Bradley will play a road game on campus against the Purple Aces since the 1995-96 season. Evansville is 3-13 overall and 0-5 in Valley play heading into a Friday night home matchup with Illinois State. The Braves and Aces have split the regular-season series each of the last four years and the home team has won the last six in the series. Bradley owns a 28-20 lead in the all-time series with Evansville, which includes a 7-4 record in the last 11 meetings and 12-5 advantage over the last eight seasons.

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

With four road wins on the year already, Bradley needs one more win away from home for the team's highest road win total since earning six road victories in 2012-13. The last season for the Braves with four road league wins was 2009-10 (4), which Bradley can match with one win in any of the final six road contests remaining on the schedule.

Off to its best MVC start since 2009-10 (6-2) with a 3-2 record, Bradley has not picked up four wins in the first half of the league schedule since that same 2009-10 campaign and the Braves look to do so for just the third time in the last 13 seasons.

Junior Shunseere Kent has emerged as Bradley's leading scorer at 9.5 points per contest and has scored in double figures a team-best nine times this year. Kent is the first junior college transfer for the Braves to score 10 or more points at least nine times since Latasha Hollingshed had 10 such efforts as a junior in 2010-11. In fact, Kent is looking to become Bradley's first junior college transfer to score average at least 9.0 points per game since Alexandra Gal (Illinois Central College) averaged 10.1 points per outing as a senior in 1998-99.

Coatesville, Ind., native Danielle Brewer will make the final trip to her home state as a Brave this weekend. Brewer scored a career-high 22 points on 7-of-8 shooting to highlight the Jan. 7 victory at Valparaiso and Bradley will be trying to win at least two games in the state of Indiana for the third time in program history. The last time the Braves picked up two wins in the state of Indiana in the same season was 2002-03 (at Butler & at Evansville).

Sophomore Chelsea Brackmann turned in her first career double-double last year at Indiana State, tallying career highs of 23 points and 19 rebounds in the overtime contest against the Sycamores. Brackmann's performance last year in Terre Haute, Ind., was just the third outing in program history of 19 points and 19 rebounds.

Junior Vanessa Markert had arguably the best game of her career last year at Evansville, finishing with career highs of 24 points, 12 rebounds and five assists. Markert is fifth in the MVC in field goal percentage (46.4 percent0 and tied for eighth in the league in blocks per game. Over the last four games, Markert is averaging 12.0 points per game on 48 percent shooting.

Bradley will follow up the weekend road with the longest home stand of the year. The Braves host Northern Iowa Friday, Jan. 26 (7 p.m.) to open a four-game MVC home stand.

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