Women’s Basketball Set For Senior Day Matchup With Illinois St.

Duane Zehr

Women's Basketball 3/2/2018 10:00:00 AM

PEORIA, Ill. -- Bradley closes out the regular-season schedule at home against I-74 rival Illinois State for the second consecutive year and will face the Redbirds on Senior Day for the fourth consecutive season when the Braves host ISU Saturday in a 2 p.m. game at Renaissance Coliseum in the final game of the 2017-18 regular season.

Saturday's outing will mark the final home games for seniors Danielle Brewer, Shareece Burrell, Kellee Clay (senior academically), Madison Dellamuth and Anneke Schlueter, who will be recognized in a pre-game ceremony. In addition to Senior Day, Saturday's matchup also has big implications in the Missouri Valley Conference standings with the winner securing the #6 seed in next week's MVC Tournament.

Saturday's game 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, which will air on 95.9 FM The Sports Nut (959thesportsnut.com).

Bradley (12-16 overall, 6-11 MVC) is one game behind Illinois State (13-15 overall, 7-10 MVC) for sixth in the Valley standings and the Braves are a full game ahead of both Loyola and Valparaiso for seventh. Bradley is guaranteed at least the #8 seed for the Valley tournament and a Loyola loss to Northern Iowa Saturday afternoon (1 p.m.) would lock up at worst the #7 seed for the Braves.

A victory Saturday would give Bradley its first regular-season sweep of Illinois State since 2014-15 after opening the Valley slate with a 62-42 victory at Redbird Arena on New Year's Eve. The Braves are 7-2 in the last nine matchups with the Redbirds and have won five consecutive games in the series. Bradley has won five consecutive Senior Day games and the Braves are 6-2 on Senior Day over the last eight seasons.

Schlueter enters the final home game of her career with 999 career points and is one point from becoming the 18th player in program history to score 1,000 career points. The all-time leading scorer in Renaissance Coliseum history, Schlueter has scored in double figures three of the last five home games and five of eight league home contests. She has averaged 10.7 points per game at home this season compared to 5.3 points per outing away from Renaissance Coliseum.

Freshman Gabi Haack continued her hot shooting last weekend at Drake and Northern Iowa, combining for seven three-pointers in the two games, to push her season total to 58 three-pointers. Haack's 58 trey's are tied for seventh among Bradley season marks and are the most on The Hilltop since Michelle Lund hit 75 in 2008-09. Her season point total (288) is seventh among Bradley freshman marks and she needs just 12 points for the sixth 300-point season by a Bradley freshman. In addition Haack's 166 rebounds rank fourth among Bradley freshman totals and she is just nine boards from owning the second-best freshman rebound total in school history behind sophomore Chelsea Brackmann's freshman record 202 rebounds last year. Haack has averaged 13.4 points per game in her home starts this season

Junior Vanessa Markert has also provided a big boost for the Braves lately, scoring 16 or more points in five consecutive games. Markert, who has averaged 14.8 points per game in the last four home games, has averaged 18.2 points per outing on 57 percent shooting to go with 7.2 rebounds and 1.6 blocks per game over the last five contests. She is 21 points from becoming the 17th player in program history to reach 700 career points as a junior.

In addition to Haack, freshman Nyjah White has started the last four games and is coming off a 10-point effort at Northern Iowa. White has averaged 8.3 points, 6.3 rebounds and 2.3 assists per game in the last three games. She and Haack have combined for 431 points this season which ranks seventh among Bradley freshman scoring duos and the pair is the highest scoring freshman tandem for the Braves since Genny Mueller and Dena Williams combined for 465 points in 2001-02.

Following Saturday's game, Bradley will head to Moline, Ill., for the 2018 MVC Tournament which will be held March 8-11 at the TaxSlayer Center.

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