Women’s Basketball Puts Streak On The Line At Purdue Friday

Patricia Díaz Velázquez

Women's Basketball 12/20/2018 9:00:00 AM

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – After rallying from behind to pull out a two-point road win at Cleveland State Wednesday, Bradley Women's Basketball will try to keep its hot start to the 2018-19 season going Friday when the Braves face Purdue in an 11 a.m. (CST) game at Mackey Arena in the final non-conference road game of the year.

Bradley (9-0 overall) is one 12 undefeated teams in the country through Wednesday, matching the best start in program history at 9-0 with a 67-65 victory at Cleveland State last night.

Friday's matchup with the Boilermakers (8-4 overall) is the first meeting between the two squads since the 1993-94 campaign. Purdue has won the last four matchups with Bradley in a series which dates back to the 1982-83 season. The Boilermakers, who reached the third round of the 2018 WNIT after a second round NCAA Tournament run in 2017, posted a 53-41 home win against Albany Wednesday.

The game will be streamed on BTN+ and BradleyBraves.com will provide links to WIRL 1290 AM broadcast along with live stats.

One of 12 undefeated teams in the nation through Wednesday, Bradley is one of four non power-5 teams without a loss. Joining the Braves in that group are UConn, Ohio and South Alabama. Six of the 12 undefeated teams are in action Thursday.
Bradley's 9-0 start to 2018-19 matches the 9-0 start by the 2001-02 squad for the best in program history and also ties for the longest win streak for the Braves.
The nine non-conference victories are the most non-conference victories for the Braves since 2011-12 (9-3) as Bradley tied the school record for non-conference wins (9). The 2008-09 (9-2) and 2001-02 (9-0) teams also claimed nine non-conference victories. The Braves have won 10 consecutive non-conference games dating back to last season.
Bradley's three non-conference road wins are the most since 2012-13 (3-3) with the Braves last season with four non-conference road wins falling in 2011-12 (5-0).
Bradley erased an 11-point deficit to pull out the two-point win at Cleveland State Wednesday, marking the first time Braves rallied from double digits for a road win since coming back from 12 points down at Missouri State on Jan. 22, 2017. Bradley had not rallied from 10 or more for a win in a non-conference road game since an 18-point come back at Southeast Missouri State on Nov. 11, 2013.
Bradley head coach Andrea Gorski has led alma mater to an improved record in each of her first two seasons and has her squad off to a 9-0 start in year three. Gorski's 25 victories entering the season were more than the Braves collected in the three seasons collectively prior to her arrival (23). In fact, she has tallied 35 victories in 72 games on the Bradley bench to tie her own head coach Lisa Boyer for the fastest coach in program history to 35 wins at the NCAA Division I level (since 1982-83). Boyer, who coached Bradley from 1986-87 through 1995-96 when Gorski was an undergrad at BU, is the associate head coach at South Carolina and has been with the Gamecocks for the last 10 seasons.
Freshman Tatum Koenig was the unlikely hero in Wednesday's 67-65 win at Cleveland State, dropping 11 of her team and season-high 16 points in the fourth quarter. Koenig, who was 6-for-8 from the field with two assists against the Vikings, had scored a total of 15 points in the first eight games. In her seven games against Division I teams prior to Wednesday, Koenig averaged 1.1 points per game on 2-for-6 shooting in 7.4 minutes per contest. She was 4-for-4 from the field with two assists in the fourth quarter, scoring or assisting 16 of Bradley's 27 points in the period.
Bradley overcame a poor shooting night in the victory at Cleveland State, recovering from a 16-for-60 (26.7 percent) shooting effort over the first 31 minutes to make 8-of-16 from the field in the final nine minutes. The Braves shot 31.6% from the field for the night, marking the lowest field goal percentage in a road win in school history. Bradley's 27 points matched its highest scoring quarter of the season, while BU's 40 points heading to the fourth was its lowest point total through three quarters since the final regular-season game of the 2017-18 season.
Sophomore Gabi Haack ranks 20^th in the nation in free throw percentage, shooting 90.5% from the free throw line (38-42). Scoring 27 percent of her points at the charity stripe, Haack had a career-best streak of 24 consecutive made free throws snapped with a 3-for-4 night from the line in her 14-point outing at Cleveland State. Overall, she has made 25 of her last 26 free throw attempts and is eighth in the MVC in scoring at 15.9 points per game. Only three players in the top 20 in the nation in free throw percentage have more makes from the line than Haaack
Bradley is second in the Missouri Valley Conference in turnovers, committing 15.3 per game, but the Braves have had 12 or fewer turnovers in three of the last four games and averaged 12.3 per outing during that stretch. Bradley also forces the second most turnovers in the MVC (18.6) and owns a league-best +3.2 average turnover margin, which is 73^rd in the nation
Junior Chelsea Brackmann continues to lead the MVC in rebounding at 10.7 boards per game after turning in her fourth double-double of the season (14 points & 11 rebounds) at Cleveland State. Brackmann's four double-doubles are tied for second most in the MVC this season and match her combined total from her freshman and sophomore seasons. She is eight rebounds short of reaching 500 for her career. Brackmann has collected three of her four double-doubles in the last four games, averaging 13.3 points, 12.8 rebounds (5.0 offensive rebounds) and 3.0 assists during that stretch while owning a 4.00 assist-to-turnover ratio.
Freshman Lasha Petree hit the game-winning shot in Bradley's 67-65 win at Cleveland State with 8.9 seconds remaining despite having a tough night offensively. Petree was 1-for-15 from the field before knocking down the game winner with a pull-up jumper from the elbow and finished with six points. Petree is still third in the MVC in scoring at 16.8 points per game and seventh in the nation in scoring among freshmen. Her 16.8 ppg average would be the third-best by a freshman in MVC history.

Bradley will have a week off for the holidays, before closing out the non-conference schedule Friday, Dec. 28 with a 7 p.m. home game against Chicago State at Renaissance Coliseum.

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