Women’s Basketball Set For Weekend Road Swing

Duane Zehr

Women's Basketball 2/7/2018 10:54:00 AM

PEORIA, Ill. – Second-year Bradley Women's Basketball head coach Andrea Gorski and the Braves hope the teams recent success away from home carries over to the second half of the Missouri Valley Conference schedule with BU hitting the road for a Friday night contest at Missouri State (7 p.m.) in addition to a doubleheader with the Bradley Men's Basketball team Sunday at Southern Illinois.

Bradley (11-11 overall, 5-6 MVC) plays four of the next six games on the road where the Braves will put their 4-1 league road record on the line. One of three MVC teams along with league-leading Drake and second-place Missouri State (12-10 overall, 8-3 MVC) with four league road victories, Bradley is tied with Sunday's opponent Southern Illinois (12-10 overall, 7-4 MVC) for the most combined road and neutral site victories (6) in the Valley this 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

Bradley posted a 62-56 win over Missouri State at JQH Arena last season and the Braves are 3-4 in the last seven trips to Springfield, Mo., heading into Friday's 7 p.m. matchup. In fact, BU is 6-7 in road contests in the series against the Bears over the last 13 seasons. Senior Anneke Schlueter, who is closing in on 1,000 career points (954 career points), has averaged 13.9 points per game in her career against Missouri State and has scored 16 or more points in four of seven career outings against the Lady Bears. In her three previous games at JQH Arena, Schlueter has scored 11.3 points and 2.0 steals per game while shooting 42.9 percent from three-point range.

Sunday's 11:30 a.m. game at Southern Illinois kicks off a men's and women's doubleheader between Bradley and the Salukis at SIU Arena. The Braves will play a doubleheader with the men's team for the first time since a non-conference doubleheader at Renaissance Coliseum on Dec. 4, 2013 and the last time the teams played a conference doubleheader was Feb. 8, 2004 at Wichita State. While Bradley has lost four consecutive road games in the series with Southern Illinois, the Braves are 6-4 in the last 10 contests at SIU Arena and 11-6 over the last 17 seasons on the road against the Salukis.

Freshman guard Gabi Haack is coming off back-to-back double-double performances and has a team-best three double-doubles on the year. The last Bradley freshman to collect three double-doubles in their rookie season was Sonya Harris in 2007-08 (5) and Haack has joined sophomore Chelsea Brackmann along with Bradley Hall of Fame members Heather Best, Karin Nicholls and Shelli Braud as the only freshmen in school history to collect 200 points, 140 rebounds and 30 or more assists. Haack now leads the Braves in both scoring at 9.7 points per game and rebounding (6.4 rpg).

Junior guard Shunseere Kent started the first 20 games of the season before coming off the bench in both games last weekend. Despite the move to the bench, Kent collected 14 points and four steals in the victory against Valparaiso in addition to a game-high 17 points against Loyola. Her 31 points in the two games nearly equaled her total from the previous five games combined (36 points) and raised her season scoring average to 9.4 points per outing.

Schlueter heads into the weekend 21st in career scoring at 954 points and is just eight points from passing Kelsey Budd for 20th on Bradley's all-time scoring list. In fact, Catie O'Leary is 12 points ahead of Schlueter in 19th at 966 and head coach Andrea Gorski is just 26 points better than the senior in 18th at 980 career points. Schlueter would be the 18th player in program history to reach 1,000 career points and first Brave to do so since Michelle Young (2011-15).

The Braves will host Play4Kay weekend Feb. 16 (vs. Evansville) and Feb. 18 (vs. Indiana State) following the weekend road swing.

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