Braves Head To Florida For FAU Thanksgiving Tournament

Julie Kestas

Women's Basketball 11/21/2018 10:00:00 AM

PEORIA, Ill. -- Bradley Women's Basketball will hit the road for the first time in 2018-19, traveling to Boca Raton, Fla., for the Florida Atlantic Thanksgiving Tournament. The Braves open tournament play Friday at 1:30 p.m. (CST) against Delaware and will face either Lafayette or tournament-host Florida Atlantic Saturday.

After a 2-0 start to the season, Bradley will try to make it 3-0 to start 2018-19 against a Delaware (2-2 overall) team which is coming off a WNIT appearance last season and posted a 85-77 victory at Delaware State Tuesday night. Lafayette is 3-1 on the year following a home loss to St. Peter's Tuesday heading into Friday's game against tournament-host Florida Atlantic, which is 1-3 this season.

A subscription video stream of both Bradley games can be purchased through FAUSports.TV and BradleyBraves.com will provide links to live stats for both contests. WIRL (1290 AM) will carry the game in the Peoria area and can be heard via the web at https://www.superhitswirl.com/bradley-womens-basketball/

For the second consecutive year Bradley has opened a season with a 2-0 record, marking the first back-to-back 2-0 starts to seasons since 2004-05 (3-0) and 2005-06 (2-0). Much like this season, the 2005-06 featured back-to-back home wins to start the year before the Braves traveled to southern Florida for a tournament. The 2004-05 team is the last Bradley squad to start a season 3-0. In 2005-06, the Braves followed their 2-0 start with a trip to Coral Gables, Fla., for the Miami Thanksgiving Classic.

Bradley will make its first trip to the state of Florida since a game at South Florida in 2012-13 and will be making its fifth trip overall to the Sunshine State. Three of the previous four excursions to the state of Florida were for in-season tournaments, with the Braves playing in a tournament at Miami in 2005-06 in addition to tournaments at Stetson in both 1993-94 and 1992-93. Bradley is 3-4 all-time in the state of Florida.

Freshman Lasha Petree had another big outing in Sunday's 83-40 victory over Rockhurst, scoring a game-high 21 points on 6-of-10 shooting. She also had four rebounds, two blocks and three steals in just 13 minutes. The leading scorer in the MVC at 22.5 points per game, Petree is the first Bradley freshman with back-to-back 20-point games since BU Hall of Fame member Heather Best had 31 points against Indiana State and a 20-point outing vs. Illinois State in the final regular-season games of the 1995-96 season.

Petree joined Judy Burns as the only freshman in school history to score 20 or more points in their first two games as a Brave. The fourth-leading scorer in school history, Burns had 23 points or more in her first three games at Bradley in 1981-82 and averaged 26.3 points per game during that stretch.

While Petree has paced the Braves in scoring the first two contests, she has had help from her fellow underclassmen with sophomores Nyjah White and Gabi Haack each adding 14.5 points and 14.0 points per game, respectively. Bradley's freshman and sophomores have combined for 66 and 63 points in each of the first two games or 76.8 percent of the squad's overall scoring. As a group the underclassmen are shooting 55.8 percent (43-for-77) from the field, including 14-of-30 (46.7 percent) from beyond the arc. White has made 11-of-15 (73.3 percent) of her field goal attempts and has a team-high seven assists. Haack has made 5-of-12 three-point attempts on the young season.

Bradley follows up the trip to Florida with a three-game home stand which gets under way Wednesday, Nov. 28 with a 7 p.m. game against Eastern Illinois. The American Marketing Association will be collecting toys for it's annual toy drive at Renaissance Coliseum with fans encouraged to bring an unwrapped toy to help families in need.

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Players Mentioned

#3 Gabi Haack: G; 5' 10"; Sophomore

#45 Nyjah White: F; 5' 11"; Sophomore

#11 Lasha Petree: G; 6' 0"; Freshman

Players Mentioned

#3 Gabi Haack
: 5' 10"; Sophomore
: G

#45 Nyjah White
: 5' 11"; Sophomore
: F

#11 Lasha Petree
: 6' 0"; Freshman
: G

Braves Head To Florida For FAU Thanksgiving Tournament

Players Mentioned

#3 Gabi Haack

#45 Nyjah White

#11 Lasha Petree

Players Mentioned

#3 Gabi Haack

#45 Nyjah White

#11 Lasha Petree