Women’s Basketball Closes Non-Conference Slate In Kansas City

Duane Zehr

Women's Basketball 12/17/2019 12:28:00 PM

PEORIA, Ill. -- Riding a seven-game win streak, Bradley Women's Basketball heads to Kansas City this weekend where the Braves will take part in the Roo Holiday Classic Friday and Saturday to wrap up the non-conference schedule.

Bradley (8-1 overall) picked up its seventh consecutive victory, topping Jackson State 78-69 last Tuesday in the team's annual Field Trip Game as the Braves extended their home win streak to 10 games. While Bradley won't be facing tournament-host Kansas City this weekend, the Braves will travel to the City of Fountains for the first time since a game vs. Kansas City on Nov. 24, 2000.

Tournament play gets underway Friday with Bradley facing first-time opponent Liberty (4-6 overall) in a 1 p.m. game at the Swinney Center. Liberty has won three of its last four games heading into a Wednesday night game at St. Francis (Pa.). Saturday, the Braves face Eastern Washington (1-6 overall) at 11 a.m. in the first meeting between the two teams since EWU posted a 79-63 win in Peoria on Dec. 10, 1984.

No video steam will be available for either outing at the Roo Holiday Classic. BradleyBraves.com will provide links to live stats for both contests along with links to the WIRL 1290 AM radio broadcast.

Bradley has won five consecutive regular-season neutral site contests after winning the Coastal Carolina Thanksgiving Classic title in Conway, S.C., last month. The Braves, who are 4-1 away from home this season including 2-0 in neutral site games, played a total of four neutral site regular-season games between the 2012-13 and 2018-19 seasons.

The current seven-game win streak is tied for the fourth longest win streak in program history. Three of the four previous times Bradley had a win streak of at least seven games the Braves went on to finish in the top half of the MVC standings with the lone exception in 2001-02. The 10-game home win streak is BU's longest since winning the final five home games of 1980-81 and the first five home contests of 1981-82. The longest home win streak in school history is a 12-game streak between the 1978-79 (5) and 1979-80 (7) campaigns.

Owning an 8-1 record heading into the final two non-conference games of the year, Bradley has as many as eight non-MVC victories for just the fifth time in program history. Overall, Bradley is 19-2 in its last 21 non-conference games after winning a school record 10 non-league games in 2018-19. Two of Bradley's last three seasons which included at least nine non-conference victories resulted in 20-win campaigns.

Sophomore Tatum Koenig scored a career-high 23 points on 8-of-10 shooting and also had six rebounds, five assists and a steal to help highlight last week's win against Jackson State. Koenig's 23 points topped her previous career high of 16 points from last December's outing at Cleveland State. Koenig has scored in double figures in each of the last two games after she averaged 5.3 points per game in the first seven games of the season. In fact, over the last five games she has averaged 9.2 points, 4.6 assists, 5.4 rebounds and 1.0 steal per game. Koenig is also shooting 40 percent from three-point range over that five-game stretch.

Junior Gabi Haack has been heating up lately, turning in double-doubles in two of the last three games and averaging nearly four three-pointers per game during that stretch. Haack has averaged 17.3 points and 10.0 rebounds per game over the last three outings since she was held scoreless for the first time in her career in the Nov. 29 contest vs. George Mason. Haack passed Leti Lerma for 24th on Bradley's all-time scoring list with her 18-point effort against Jackson State and is just the 10th Brave to reach 900 career points as a junior. The last to do so was Katie Yohn in 2011-12.

Bradley will have a break for the holidays before opening Missouri Valley Conference play with a three-game home stand, which gets underway Friday, Jan. 3 against Evansville (7 p.m.) at Renaissance Coliseum.

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Players Mentioned

#23 Leti Lerma: F; 5' 10"; Senior

#3 Gabi Haack: G; 5' 10"; Junior

#13 Tatum Koenig: G; 5' 7"; Sophomore

Players Mentioned

#23 Leti Lerma
: 5' 10"; Senior
: F

#3 Gabi Haack
: 5' 10"; Junior
: G

#13 Tatum Koenig
: 5' 7"; Sophomore
: G

Women’s Basketball Closes Non-Conference Slate In Kansas City

Players Mentioned

#23 Leti Lerma

#3 Gabi Haack

#13 Tatum Koenig

Players Mentioned

#23 Leti Lerma

#3 Gabi Haack

#13 Tatum Koenig