Women’s Basketball Opens Second Half Of League Play At Home

Duane Zehr

Women's Basketball 1/31/2018 11:30:00 AM

PEORIA, Ill. -- Bradley Women's Basketball opens the second half of the Missouri Valley Conference regular-season schedule at home and finishes out a season-long, four-game home stand this weekend, hosting conference newcomer Valparaiso Friday night before welcoming Loyola to Renaissance Coliseum for a Sunday afternoon contest.

The Braves (10-10 overall, 4-5 MVC) are currently sixth in the Valley standings, one game ahead of Valparaiso (10-10 overall, 3-6 MVC) heading into Friday's 7 p.m. meeting. Bradley posted a 88-69 victory over the Crusaders in the first meeting between the two teams as conference foes back on Jan. 7 behind a career-high 22 points from Danielle Brewer. The Braves own a 7-1 lead in the all-time series with Valparaiso, which includes a 3-0 record at home and the Crusaders will play a game in Peoria for the first time since BU posted a 79-71 overtime victory on Nov. 21, 2005.

The first 150 Bradley students in attendance at Friday's matchup with Valparaiso will receive a pair of fuzzy socks courtesy of the Red Sea.

Sunday's tilt with Loyola will feature a special 1 p.m. start as the Braves look to add to a four-game win streak in the series with the Ramblers. Bradley edged Loyola 59-57 in the season's first meeting back on Jan. 5 in Chicago and now owns a 23-15 advantage in the series. The Braves are 12-4 at home in the series, which includes a 10-1 record in the last 11 home contests dating back to the 1993-94 season.

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

While Bradley's 4-5 MVC record in the first half of league play was the team's best conference start since opening the 2009-10 Valley slate with a 6-3 record, head coach Andrea Gorski and the Braves hope history repeats itself. Bradley has posted a better record the second time through the conference in seven consecutive years and 13 of the last 15 seasons. In fact, over that 15-year span the only seasons the Braves did not improve in the second half were the 2009-10 (6-3 both halves) and 2004-05 (4-5 both halves) campaigns in which the team matched the first half record.

Bradley was 0-for-8 from three-point range last Friday against Northern Iowa, but followed it up by making 13 three-pointers against Drake Sunday afternoon to tie for the third-best single-game total in school history. Over the last five games, the Braves have averaged 7.6 three's per game on 45.8 percent shooting after averaging 5.3 trey's on 30.4 percent shooting to open the season and the Braves have posted two of the top six single-game three-point field goal totals in program history during that stretch.

Coatesville, Ind., native Danielle Brewer, who scored a career-high 22 points in the first matchup with Valparaiso on 7-of-8 shooting, is coming off a game-high 20 points in Sunday's outing against Drake in which she scored 14 points in the second half. In three games against teams from the state of Indiana this season, Brewer has averaged 10.0 points on 67 percent shooting (10-of-15) along with 3.7 assists per game. She needs five points to become the 41st player in program history to score 700 career points.

Freshman Gabi Haack is also coming off a strong performance after hitting 5-of-10 three-pointers in a 17-point effort against league-leading Drake. Haack's team-best 40 three-pointers rank as the sixth-best total by an underclassmen at Bradley and she is 18-for-34 (52.9 percent) from beyond the arc in the last five games at Renaissance Coliseum. She has started 10 consecutive games, boasting averages of 13.0 points, 6.7 rebounds and 2.0 assists per game to go with a 2.50 assist-to-turnover ratio when she appears in the starting lineup.

Senior Anneke Schlueter became the fifth player in program history with 100 career starts in Sunday's outing against Drake. Schlueter, who had a career-best 23 points last year at Valparaiso, is closing in on the top 20 career scoring on The Hilltop. She is 25 points from passing Kelsey Budd for 20th all-time and currently 29 points behind 19th-place (Catie O'Leary) on the all-time scoring chart.

Bradley will follow up the weekend home stand with a two-game Valley road swing which starts Friday, Feb. 9 at Missouri State (7 p.m.).

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