Bradley Faces Missouri St. In MVC Quarterfinals

Women's Basketball 3/9/2018 1:49:00 AM

MOLINE, Ill. – Bradley Women's Basketball will face #2 seed Missouri State in the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament Quarterfinals Friday, taking on the Bears in a 6 p.m. game at the TaxSlayer Center.

The Braves blitzed #10 seed Evansville 77-49 in an opening round matchup Thursday night, with freshman Gabi Haack leading the way with 20 points.

All games of the MVC Tournament will be available on ESPN3 as part of The Valley On ESPN3 and can be viewed through WatchESPN.com and the WatchESPN app. In addition, BradleyBraves.com will provide links to live stats and the WIRL 1290 AM broadcast with Ed Hammond providing play-by-play.

Fans making the trip to the Quad Cities for the MVC Tournament are encouraged to attend a send-off (weather permitting) for the Braves Friday at 4:40 p.m. at the Radisson on John Deere Commons (1415 River Drive, Moline, Ill.) featuring the Bradley Basketball band and cheerleaders.

Bradley's 77-49 opening-round victory over #10 seed Evansville Thursday advanced the Braves to the MVC Tournament quarterfinals for the third consecutive year. Bradley has reached quarterfinals in three consecutive seasons for the first time since a four-year stretch between 2008-09 and 2011-12. The Braves are in search of their first MVC Tournament semifinal appearance since 2008-09 and a victory over Missouri State Friday would give Bradley its seventh semifinal appearance in program history.

Missouri State swept the regular-season series from the Braves, winning 71-65 in Peoria (Jan. 14) and posting a 74-54 victory in Springfield, Mo. (Feb. 9). The Bears own a 53-25 lead in the all-time series. Bradley has not played Missouri State in the MVC Tournament since 2012 (a Missouri State victory) and the teams have split two neutral-site meetings, with the Braves winning in Des Moines, Iowa, in 2007. Missouri State is the most frequent MVC Tournament opponent for Bradley with Friday's matchup marking the ninth all-time meeting, but Bradley will face the Bears in the conference tournament for just the second time since the neutral site 2007 victory. The Bears are 6-2 in Valley Tournament meetings.

Freshman Gabi Haack had an impressive MVC Tournament debut, scoring 14 points during a 3:22 span of the first quarter in Friday's victory over Evansville and finished with a team-high 20 points. Haack made 5-of-9 three-pointers in the victory, doing all of her scoring in the first half for the first 20-point half by a Brave since Kelsey Budd dropped 20 in the first half of a game at Western Illinois on Dec. 21, 2012. The 5-for-9 three-point shooting followed up an 0-for-2 day from beyond the arc against Illinois State last Saturday. The last time Haack came off a game in which she didn't hit a three-pointer, she knocked down 5-of-10 triples in the home game against Drake. Haack's 20 points were the most by a Brave in a Valley Tournament game since Raisa Taylor matched a school MVC Tournament single-game record with 24 points against Evansville on March 14, 2009.

In addition to Gabi Haack's 20 points, fellow freshman Nyjah White also reached double figures with 10 points Thursday against Evansville in just 12 minutes of action. Freshmen combined for 39 of BU's 77 points in the victory. Haack and White have combined for 465 points season and need one point between them to become the highest scoring pair of Bradley freshmen since Karin Nicholls and Carol Baresch tallied 517 points during the 1986-87 season. In addition the duo of Haack and White have 300 combined rebounds to rank second among Bradley freshman tandems behind only Shelli Braud and Kim Harris total of 306 rebounds in 1984-85.

Bradley committed a season-low seven turnovers Thursday against Evansville, marking the lowest turnover total in a game for the Braves since a seven-turnover outing against Northern Iowa on Feb. 17, 2006. Last season's turnover average (16.3 per game) was Bradley's lowest in over a decade and this season's average of 14.3 turnovers per game would be the lowest in school history, surpassing the previous record of 16.1 turnovers in 2000-01. In fact over the last six games the Braves have committed just 11.8 turnovers per outing with a 1.31 assist-to-turnover ratio.

Thursday's opening round MVC Tournament victory over Evansville gave Bradley its 13th victory of the season, one more win than the Braves had last season. Bradley's 13 wins is the team's highest total since 2012-13 and the Braves have an improved overall win total in consecutive seasons for the first time since the first two seasons of former head coach Paula Buscher's tenure in 2000-01 and 2001-02. Second-year head coach Andrea Gorski and Buscher, who was the 2008-09 MVC Coach of the Year, are the only coaches in program history to lead Bradley to a higher win total in each of their first two seasons on The Hilltop.

Bradley hit nine three-pointers Thursday against Evansville, thanks in part to Gabi Haack's 5-for-9 three-point shooting. The team's top scorer at 10.3 points per game, Haack has connected on 63 three-pointers this season for just the sixth season of 60-plus three-pointers by a Brave. Haack is now the first freshman in the Missouri Valley Conference since at least the 1996-97 season to collect 60 three-pointers and 175 or more rebounds. Her 310 points rank sixth among Bradley freshman records and Haack's 179 rebounds rank second among BU freshman marks behind only Chelsea Brackmann's school freshman record of 202 boards set last season. Haack needs eight points to become Bradley's highest scoring freshman since Heather Best had 340 points in 1995-96. As a team, Bradley has 165 three-pointers for the highest total of triples since 2011-12 (169) and BU's 5.5 three-pointers per game is the squad's highest average since 2006-07 (5.9 per game).

Senior Anneke Schlueter's third-quarter three-pointer Thursday night moved her into a tie with Bradley head coach Andrea Gorski for fifth in career three-pointers in program history at 148. Schlueter, who moved into the top 10 in career minutes played at Bradley Thursday vs. Evansville, is now tied for second in games played on The Hilltop with Kelsey Budd at 122. In eight career games against Missouri State, Schlueter has scored 101 points for the fourth highest point total in series history for Bradley.

The winner of Friday's quarterfinal game between #2 seed Missouri State and #7 seed Bradley will advance to Saturday's 4 p.m. semifinal against the winner of Friday's final quarterfinal between #3 seed Northern Iowa and #6 Illinois State. The Braves dropped both regular-season matchups with UNI and the teams would be meeting in the Valley Tournament for the third consecutive year with the Panthers ending Bradley's season each of the last two years. Bradley and Illinois State split the regular-season series with the road team winning each game. The Braves and Redbirds last met in the Valley Tournament in 2013.

Print Friendly Version