Braves Face Road Tests At Cleveland St. & Purdue

Duane Zehr

Women's Basketball 12/18/2018 9:53:00 AM

PEORIA, Ill. -- Bradley Women's Basketball will face a pair of road tests this week, taking on Cleveland State Wednesday afternoon in Cleveland, Ohio, before traveling to West Lafayette, Ind., for a Friday matinee against Big Ten Conference foe Purdue to close out the non-conference road schedule.

The Braves (8-0 overall) opened a three-game road swing with an 80-60 win at Omaha last Friday and are one of 17 undefeated teams in the country through games of Dec. 17. Bradley's eight-game win streak entering the week is tied for the second longest in school history, behind only the 9-0 start to the 2001-02 season, and the Braves have won nine consecutive non-conference games dating back to last season.

Wednesday's game at Cleveland State will tip at 4 p.m. (CST) and is the first game of a men's and women's doubleheader for the Vikings at the Wolstein Center. The third all-time meeting between Bradley and Cleveland State, the Vikings won the first two meetings by edging the Braves last year at Renaissance Coliseum in addition to topping BU at the 2007 Great Alaska Shootout in Anchorage, Alaska. Wednesday's game against Cleveland State will be available on ESPN3.

Bradley will face Purdue for the first time since the 1993-94 season and will make its first visit to West Lafayette, Ind., since 1992-93. Friday's matchup will have a special 11 a.m. (CST) start time at Mackey Arena and the game will be streamed on BTN+.

BradleyBraves.com will provide links to live stats along with the WIRL 1290 AM broadcast of both contests.

Cleveland State is the second Horizon League opponent for Bradley in 2018-19. The Braves are 11-9 in the last 20 games against Horizon League foes, which includes a 5-3 mark under third-year head coach Andrea Gorski. Bradley will play a road game against a Horizon League foe for the ninth consecutive year and is 3-1 in its last four road contests against the Horizon League.

Bradley has won three of its last five games against teams from the Big Ten Conference and the Braves will be playing a team from the Big Ten for the 13th time in the last 16 seasons. The last road win for Bradley against a Big Ten foe was in 2012-13 (at Illinois).

Through eight games, Bradley is second in the MVC in scoring at 76.1 points per game and the Braves have scored 80 or more points in five outings. Bradley is 54th in the nation in scoring through Dec. 17. The Braves have averaged better than 70 points per game just twice in the last 24 seasons (2012-13 & 2004-05) with this season's average ranking as the best on The Hilltop since the 1982-83 team averaged 82.7 points per tilt.

Bradley had a total of six 80-point scoring efforts during the first two years of head coach Andrea Gorski's tenure and a total of seven contests with 80 or more points over the previous four campaigns. Freshman Lasha Petree is scoring 18.1 points per game (2nd in MVC) and sophomore Gabi Haack adds 16.1 points per game (5th in MVC). The last time Bradley had two players in the same season average 15 or more points per game was 1994-95 and the Braves are one of 15 teams in the country through Dec. 17 to have two players scoring over 16 points per game.

Bradley is now 7-4 in the first game following the finals break over the last 11 years and the Braves are 22-11 (.667) in such contests dating back to the 1985-86 season after last week's win at Omaha. The final game heading into Christmas has also been successful for Bradley with the Braves boasting a 19-9 (.679) mark in the final outing before the holidays going back to the 1990-91 campaign. During that stretch, Bradley is 11-5 (.688) when playing the final game before Christmas away from home.

Petree was named Missouri Valley Conference Player & Newcomer of the Week Monday after pouring in a game-high 28 points in last week's win at Omaha. She is just the seventh player since the MVC started awarding Newcomer of the Week in 2003-04 to sweep both awards in the same week and just the fifth freshman to do. Petree is second in the MVC in scoring at 18.1 points per game and is third among freshmen nationally in scoring behind only Chrislyn Carr of Texas Tech (18.9 ppg) and Oklahoma's Taylor Robertson (18.4 ppg).

Petree's 28-point outing at Omaha marked her fourth 20-point outing of the year. She has been in the starting lineup each of the last three games, averaging 22.0 points per game while shooting 15-of-32 (46.9) from three-point range in those games. Petree is the sixth player in program history to have four or more 20-point outings during their freshman season and has joined Connie Griffith (1977-78) as the only freshmen in school history to score 28 or more in two different contests. In addition, her 18.1 points per game average through eight games is the best at Bradley dating back to the 2001-02 season when Sara Bailey averaged 22.5 points per outing while helping the Braves to their only other 8-0 start in program history.

Bradley will have a week off from competition following Friday's outing at Purdue before closing out the non-conference schedule Friday, Dec. 28 with a 7 p.m. game against Chicago State at Renaissance Coliseum.

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Players Mentioned

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

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

Players Mentioned

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

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

Braves Face Road Tests At Cleveland St. & Purdue

Players Mentioned

#3 Gabi Haack

#11 Lasha Petree

Players Mentioned

#3 Gabi Haack

#11 Lasha Petree