Women’s Basketball Set For Home Opener Saturday

Duane Zehr

Women's Basketball 11/15/2019 11:00:00 AM

PEORIA, Ill. -- Bradley Women's Basketball opens the 2019-20 home schedule Saturday with the Braves hosting Eureka in a 1 p.m. game at Renaissance Coliseum in the team's home opener after kicking off the 45th season in program history with a pair of road games in Michigan.

Bradley (1-1 overall) is looking to start a season with a 2-1 record for the third consecutive year, posting a 74-58 season-opening win at Oakland last Friday and following it up with a 57-77 loss at #24/25 Michigan Sunday.

Saturday's game will be available on ESPN3 and BradleyBraves.com will provide links to live stats along with the WIRL 1290 AM radio broadcast.

The Braves own an 11-3 lead in the all-time series with Eureka, which includes just two meetings since the 1980-81 season. Bradley posted a 103-59 victory in the last regular-season meeting with the Red Devils on Nov. 27, 2016. The Braves are 7-1 in regular-season home games vs. Eureka with Bradley winning the last six home games in the series.

Bradley is 31-13 (.705) in home openers after winning the first home contest each of the first three years under fourth-year head coach Andrea Gorski. The last loss in a home opener was Nov. 22, 2015 against #17/24 Oklahoma. The Braves will open the home slate against in-state opponent for the first time since a season-opening home win over Illinois on Nov. 8, 2013. Overall, Bradley will be facing an in-state opponent in the home opener for the 19th time with the Braves owning a 16-2 mark in those contests. In fact, Bradley is 6-0 in its last six home openers against in-state teams dating back to a loss to Eastern Illinois in the 2000-01 home opener.

Bradley has won six consecutive games against in-state non-conference opponents and the Braves are 8-4 against non-conference teams from during Gorski's tenure heading into Saturday's home opener against Eureka. Overall, Bradley is 60-36 (.625) against non-conference squads from Illinois dating back to 1995-96. Since joining the Gateway Conference for the 1983-84 season the Braves are 43-19 (.694) at home against in-state non-conference opponents, which includes 36-15 (.706) mark since 1994-95.

Posting a 12-3 record at Renaissance Coliseum last year, the Braves have won six consecutive home contests heading into Saturday's home opener against Eureka. Overall, Bradley has won six consecutive home non-conference contests dating back to a loss to Cleveland State on Dec. 19, 2017 with the Braves owning a 10-1 mark over their last 11 non-conference home games. Bradley's current six-game home win streak is tied for the longest in the now 10-year history of Renaissance Coliseum. The last time the Braves had a home win streak longer than six games was a nine-game stretch between 2007-08 and 2008-09.

After averaging a team-best 14.6 points per game over the final 10 games of the 2018-19 season, sophomore guard Lasha Petree has picked up where she left off scoring a game-high 20 points in last Friday's win at Oakland and followed it up with a game-high 17 points Sunday at #24/25 Michigan. Petree is averaging 18.5 points per game on the young season. The 20-point game at Oakland was the seventh of her career. Of her 20 career games with 10 or more points, Petree has scored at least 15 points 15 times. The Detroit native has averaged 22.0 points per outing in her three career games against teams from the state of Michigan.

Junior Gabi Haack has historically been better in the second half of games and the start of the 2019-20 season has been no different. Haack has scored a total of one point in the first half of games this season and is 0-for-8 from the field in the first half of games so far on the young season. In the second half, Haack has averaged 12.5 points, 4.0 rebounds and 2.0 assists per game while shooting 47.4 percent from the field. In her career, Haack has shot 43 percent from the field and 38.2 percent from three-point range in the second half of games while averaging 6.8 points per game compared to 38 percent shooting, including 35.8 percent from three-point range, and scoring 5.8 points per outing in the first half of contests. She has also been more productive from the free throw line in the second half of games, shooting 81.7 percent (67-of-82) in the first half of games vs. 88.1 percent (104-of-118) in the second half during her career.

Chelsea Brackmann is once again among the top rebounders in the Missouri Valley Conference and the senior forward has already moved up three spots on Bradley's career rebounding list this season. Brackmann started the year seventh in career rebounds at BU with 723 boards and is now tied for fourth in Bradley history with Carrie Coffman at 740 career rebounds. Brackmann needs 49 rebounds to pass Val Wacket for third all-time on The Hilltop and is 105 from breaking Leti Lerma's school career mark of 844 rebounds.

Following Saturday's home game, Bradley heads to Macomb, Ill., Wednesday, Nov. 20 for a 5:30 p.m. contest at Western Illinois.

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