Braves Travel To Valparaiso & Loyola To Close First Half Of MVC State

Duane Zehr

Women's Basketball 1/31/2019 10:30:00 AM

PEORIA, Ill. – Bradley Women's Basketball closes the first half of the Missouri Valley Conference regular-season schedule with a pair of road games, taking on Valparaiso (Friday) and Loyola (Sunday) to finish out a three-game Valley road swing.

Currently fourth in the MVC standings with a 4-3 league mark, Bradley (14-4 overall) is 3-0 in conference road games after posting a 79-68 victory at I-74 rival Illinois State last Saturday and sits one game behind third-place Northern Iowa heading into the weekend.

Valparaiso (5-14 overall, 1-6 MVC) has played five of seven games to start Valley play on the road with the two home games resulting in an overtime loss to Indiana State and a 93-49 victory over Evansville. Friday's 7 p.m. game at the ARC in Valparaiso, Ind., will be available on ESPN+. In addition the Bullpen Sports Bar, located in the Landmark Recreation Center at 3225 North Dreis Lane in Peoria, will host a watch party for Friday night's game against the Crusaders.

Loyola (9-9 overall, 3-4 MVC) is a game behind Bradley in the Valley standings heading into a Friday night home game against Illinois State and the Ramblers are 3-0 at home in conference games. Sunday's game against Loyola, which tips at 1 p.m., can be viewed on ESPN3.

BradleyBraves.com will provide links to the WIRL 1290 AM radio broadcast along with links to live stats for both games.

The Braves swept the regular-season series from Valparaiso last year and have won the last three matchups with the Crusaders. Overall, Bradley is 8-1 in the all-time series, which includes a 4-1 advantage in meetings in Valparaiso, Ind.

Bradley and Loyola split the regular-season last season with the road squad winning each contest. The Braves are 4-1 in the last five games against the Ramblers, however, and own a 23-16 lead in the all-time series. The teams have split 18 all-time meetings in Chicago, but Bradley has won the last two games at Gentile Area and is 7-3 in the last 10 road games at Loyola dating back to the 1997-98 season.

Saturday's 79-68 victory at I-74 rival Illinois State gave Bradley 14 victories on the year, surpassing the team's overall win total from 2017-18. In addition to marking the most wins since closing the 2012-13 campaign with a 14-16 record, the Braves have now improved their win total in four consecutive seasons to mark the first time in program history with an improved record in four straight seasons.

Head Coach Andrea Gorski is the first coach in program history to lead Bradley to an improved win total in each of their first three seasons on the BU bench. The 14-4 record through 18 games is the best by the Braves since starting the 1981-82 season 17-4 and marks just the third 14-4 start to season in program history (1980-81 - 14-4). In fact, Bradley earned its 14th victory before the end of January for the first time. The earliest the Braves had 14 wins prior to this season was 2008-09 (Feb. 1).

Bradley improved to 3-0 in MVC road games with Saturday's victory at Illinois State, giving the Braves a 3-0 road start to league play for the second consecutive year. BU has just one other season in which it won the first three league road games with head coach Andrea Gorski's sophomore season of 1989-90 featuring a 4-0 road start to Gateway Conference action. Overall, the Braves own a 6-1 record in January road games over the last two seasons and an 8-4 mark in road contests in the month of January under head coach Andrea Gorski with only Drake (13) owning more January road wins than Bradley over that stretch. Bradley is 6-1 in road games on the season for the team's most road wins since 2012-13 (6-9).

Freshman Lasha Petree earned MVC Newcomer of the Week honors for the third time in 2018-19 after scoring a team-high 21 points in the win at Illinois State, which included 16 second-half points. Petree's three MVC Newcomer of the Week honors is tied for the most in the Valley this year with Illinois State's TeTe Maggett and she is just the fourth player in program history to capture three Valley Newcomer of the Week awards. She is joined on the list by Shronda Butts (2011-12), Katie Yohn (2009-10) and Michelle Lund (2008-09).

Sophomore Gabi Haack scored 13 points at Illinois State to push her streak of consecutive games in double figures to 16. The MVC leader in three-point makes, Haack has hit at least one three-pointer in 12 consecutive contests. She is the first Bradley to have 10+ points in 16 straight games since Sara Bailey (16) in 2000-01 and her streak is tied for the seventh longest in school history. The last Brave with a streak longer than 16 games scoring in double figures was Carrie Coffman with 28 straight 10+-point efforts between the 1993-94 and 1994-95 seasons. Haack's career-best streak of 12 consecutive games with a three-pointer is tied for the ninth longest in program history. She is just the third player in program history to connect on 50 three-pointers and make at least 80 free throws in a season. In fact, she is one of just five players in the nation to collect 50 three's and 80 made free throws through games of Jan. 27.

Bradley follows up the weekend road swing with five of the next seven games at Renaissance Coliseum, starting the stretch Friday, Feb. 8 by hosting Indiana State in a 7 p.m. home game.

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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 Travel To Valparaiso & Loyola To Close First Half Of MVC State

Players Mentioned

#3 Gabi Haack

#11 Lasha Petree

Players Mentioned

#3 Gabi Haack

#11 Lasha Petree