Braves Open Road Swing Friday At Omaha

Duane Zehr

Women's Basketball 12/13/2018 9:21:00 AM

PEORIA, Ill. -- After playing five of the first seven games of the season at home, Bradley Women's Basketball opens a three-game road swing Friday at Omaha with the Braves putting their perfect 7-0 record on the line in a noon matchup against the Mavericks.

One of 18 undefeated teams remaining in the country, Bradley (7-0) returns to action following a nine-day break from competition for semester finals. The Braves won the only previous regular-season meeting with Omaha (5-4 overall) as Bradley opened the 2017-18 season with a 69-56 win at Renaissance Coliseum.

Friday's game, which will be played at Sapp Fieldhouse, will be Omaha's Field Trip Day. BradleyBraves.com will provide links to a free video stream (omavs.com) and live stats along with the 1290 AM audio stream.

Overall, Bradley is 29-15 against current Summit League members, which includes a 10-11 road record. Twenty of the 21 road games against Summit League teams have come against in-state opponent Western Illinois, with the lone exception a contest at Denver on Dec. 16, 2000.

The last time Bradley played a non-conference game in the state of Nebraska was Dec. 3, 1997 (at Nebraska) and the Braves have a total of just three non-conference contests in the Cornhusker State, with the lone victory falling on Dec. 2, 1988 at Creighton prior to the Bluejays joining the Missouri Valley Conference for the 1992-93 season.

The Braves are 7-0 for just the second time in program history, joining the 2001-02 squad (9-0) as the only Bradley teams to win their first seven games of a season. In fact, the seven-game win streak is tied for the third longest in program history. Each of the previous four times Bradley had a win streak of at least seven games, the Braves went on to win at least 16 contests with the last seven-game win streak in 2008-09 part of a 21-10 campaign in which BU finished fourth in the final MVC standings.

In addition to matching the best start in program history through seven games, the Braves have already assured themselves of their best non-conference record since posting a 9-3 non-conference mark in 2011-12. The 2018-19 campaign marks the sixth season in which Bradley has posted at least seven non-conference victories and is tied for the fourth most non-conference wins in a season in school history.

After playing a combined 28 minutes in the previous two outings due to foul trouble, sophomore Nyjah White nearly turned in the first triple-double by a Brave in over 20 years as she collected career highs of 23 points and eight assists to go with nine rebounds, two blocks and two steals against Western Illinois last week. White, who had 17 points, seven rebounds and four assists in the second half to help the Braves hold off the Leathernecks, had the most assists by a Bradley player since Feb. 2017 and was the first Bradley player to score 20 or more points in a game while also dishing out eight or more assists dating back to Heather Best against Illinois State on Feb. 7, 1998 (20 points & 8 assists). White leads the team in assists (3.3 per game), while ranking second on the squad in rebounding (5.9 rpg) and steals (1.3 spg) in addition to scoring 11.0 points per outing.

Junior Chelsea Brackmann has had back-to-back double-doubles and has three double-double performances this season. The leading rebounder in the Missouri Valley Conference this season at 11.0 boards per game, Brackmann has recovered from slow offensive starts this season to average 10.6 points per contest on 51.9 percent shooting. She has scored 2.1 points per game on just 35.7 percent shooting in the first half of games, but is scoring a team-best 8.4 points per game in the second half of contests on 57.9 percent shooting from the field. During the recently completed three-game home stand, she averaged 12.7 points, 13.7 rebounds and 2.3 assists per game. Brackmann scored her 500th career point against Western Illinois (12 points & 15 rebounds) and is 27 boards short of 500 for her career.

Bradley continues the three-game road swing next Wednesday, traveling to Cleveland State for a 4 p.m. (CST) game on Dec. 19.

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