Women’s Basketball Set For Four-Game Home Stand

Duane Zehr

Women's Basketball 1/25/2018 11:00:00 AM

PEORIA, Ill. -- Bradley Women's Basketball kicks off a season-long four-game home stand with a pair of games this weekend, welcoming Northern Iowa (Friday) and defending Missouri Valley Conference champion Drake (Sunday) to Renaissance Coliseum to wrap up the first half of the Valley schedule.

Fresh off a historic 117-59 victory over Evansville Sunday to conclude a stretch in which Bradley (10-8 overall, 4-3) played five of seven on the road to open the MVC slate, the Braves will look for their first home conference wins of the year against the teams that finished first and second in last year's league standings.

Friday's game against Northern Iowa (7 p.m.) will be a battle for sole possession of fourth place in the Valley standings with both teams entering the contest tied at 4-3 in MVC play. Bradley students in attendance Friday night will receive a free t-shirt courtesy of the Red Sea.

Drake (12-7 overall, 7-0 MVC) enters a Friday night road game at Illinois State atop the standings and has won a Missouri Valley Conference record 29 league victories dating back to the 2015-16 season. A free post-game youth clinic will follow Sunday's 2 p.m. outing against the Bulldogs. No pre-registration is required, but clinic participants are asked to wear active wear and gym shoes.

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

For the third consecutive year, Bradley will have a four-game Missouri Valley Conference home stand after going 20 years without playing four straight conference home games. The Braves have played the second most road games in the MVC this season at 10. Despite an 0-2 conference mark at Renaissance Coliseum this year, Bradley has won five of its last eight league home games dating back to last year and is 9-4 in the last 13 home contests overall. Two of BU's three home losses this year were decided by two points or fewer, while the lone exception (Missouri State) was a tie game with less than five minutes to play.

Senior Anneke Schlueter heads into the home stand on the verge of becoming the all-time leading scorer in Renaissance Coliseum history. She passed former teammate Leti Lerma for 23rd in career scoring at Bradley Sunday at Evansville and needs 10 points to break Lerma's facility scoring mark of 480 career points. In addition, Schlueter is 10 points from moving up two spots on the Bradley career scoring list into 21^st with both Jenn Jolley (22^nd – 920) and Ashley Chelleen (21^st – 925) within striking distance.

Bradley's 4-3 start to MVC play is the team's best since 2009-10 (6-3) as the Braves reach the halfway point of the Valley schedule Sunday against Drake. While Bradley has nine previous starts to league play of 5-4 or better, only two of those have come in the last 20 year with the 2008-09 (5-4) and 2009-10 (6-3) squads both doing so. Head coach Andrea Gorski has been part of three of the previous 5-4 starts in program history with her sophomore and junior teams both opening Gateway Conference play 6-3 and her freshman team of 1988-89 starting off 5-4.

For the 12th time in program history Bradley opened conference play with five of seven games on the road, but the Braves won four games away from home when starting with five of seven league games away from home for just the second time. Gorski was part of the only other Bradley team to win four road contests when starting conference action with five of seven games on the road. Her sophomore season (1989-90) featured a 5-2 start to the Gateway Conference schedule, which included a 4-1 road mark as the team went on to finish 12-6 and earn a fourth-place league finish. Bradley's five road wins this season are the teams most since 2012-13 (6) and the last time the Braves won four road games in Valley play was 2009-10 (4).

Bradley will host Missouri Valley Conference newcomer Valparaiso Friday, Feb. 2 to continue the four-game home stand and start the second half of the Valley slate.

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