Braves Host Jackson State For Field Trip Day Tuesday

Duane Zehr

Women's Basketball 12/9/2019 10:38:00 AM

PEORIA, Ill. -- Bradley Women's Basketball closes out the non-conference home schedule with its annual Field Trip Day presented by Prairie Farms when the Braves host Jackson State Tuesday in a noon game at Renaissance Coliseum.

A 70-64 victory over North Dakota State Thursday pushed Bradley's record to 7-1 on the year as the Braves earned their sixth consecutive victory. Jackson State (1-6 overall) has dropped four consecutive games following a 63-59 loss at Southeastern Louisiana Saturday with the last two games decided by four points or less. Three of Jackson State's six losses on the year have been against top 25 teams and the Tigers will be playing their seventh road game of the year.

Bradley and Jackson State will be meeting for the second time with Bradley posting a 77-49 win over the Tigers back on Dec. 18, 2004 at Carver Arena in the only previous meeting. Jackson State is the only Southwestern Athletic Conference opponent Bradley has faced.

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

For the eighth consecutive year, area school children (approximately 2,900) will be in attendance with each student receiving a workbook which has puzzles, games and word problems that focus on leading a healthy lifestyle, nutrition, character building and dealing with bullying. The seven previous Field Trip Day crowds all rank in the top nine highest attended games in the nine-plus year history of Renaissance Coliseum. Overall, Bradley has had eight Field Trip games and averaged 2,004 fans per game for the event. Tuesday's attendance will likely break the largest stand-alone crowd in school history of 3,128 on hand for the Jan. 6, 2002 game vs. Illinois State at Robertson Memorial Field House.

The Braves are 7-1 or better to start a season for just the fourth time in school history. Two of the last three starts of 7-1 or better have resulted in at least 19-win seasons, including last year's 20-10 campaign which featured a 9-0 start to the year. Bradley is seeking just the third start in program history of 8-1 or better.

Tuesday's game against Jackson State will be Bradley's final contest before semester finals. The Braves are 21-11 in the last game before the finals break since 1987-88. During that stretch, the Braves have posted a 12-5 record in the last game before finals at home.

Bradley has won a Renaissance Coliseum record nine consecutive home games after last week's victory over North Dakota State. The Braves have also won 10 consecutive non-conference home contests heading into Tuesday's matchup with Jackson State. After a perfect non-conference home mark last year, Bradley is 13-1 in its last 14 non-conference home outings. Bradley's nine-game home win streak is the longest since a nine-game stretch between the 2007-08 and 2008-09 seasons. The longest home win streaks in Bradley history are a 12-game stretch between the 1978-79 and 1979-80 seasons along with a 10-game home win streak from late in the 1980-81 campaign to early in the 1981-82 season. The Braves are 15-3 at home since the start of the 2018-19 campaign.

Sophomore Lasha Petree scored a career-high 30 points against North Dakota State last week, knocking down 6-of-14 three-point attempts. The first Bradley player to score at least 30 points in a game since Gabi Haack had 32 at Florida Atlantic last November, Petree was the first Brave to reach the 30-point mark in a game at Renaissance Coliseum dating back to a 32-point outing by Michelle Young against Illinois in the 2013-14 season opener. In fact, Petree had 14 second-quarter points during a 22-point first-half scoring effort for the highest scoring half by a Brave since Dena Williams had 22 points in the first half against Jackson State at Carver Arena on Dec. 18, 2004. Petree now has eight 20-point games in her career, including two this season, and has collected 15 or more points in a half seven times. She leads Bradley in scoring at 16.8 points per game.

Junior Gabi Haack scored 21 points on 8-of-13 shooting, including 5-of-10 from beyond the arc, and also had nine rebounds to highlight last week's win over North Dakota State. Haack has scored 20 or more points in three of the last five games (15.6 ppg) and has moved into the top 25 in career scoring at Bradley at 890 career points. Haack now has 13 career 20-point games, which is the most on The Hilltop since Genny Mueller wrapped up her career with 19 outings with 20 or more points in 2004-05. Needing 10 points to reach 900 for her career, Haack would be just the 10th Brave to score 900 career points as a junior and first to do so since Katie Yohn in 2011-12. She needs 16 points to pass Leti Lerma for 24th on Bradley's all-time scoring chart.

Bradley follows up the break for finals by traveling to Kansas City, Mo., where the Braves will wrap up the non-conference schedule with a pair of games at the Roo Holiday Classic. Bradley faces first-time opponent Liberty (Dec. 20) before taking on Eastern Washington the next morning in the first meeting with Eagles since a home game on Dec. 10, 1984.

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Players Mentioned

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

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

#11 Lasha Petree: G; 6' 0"; Sophomore

Players Mentioned

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

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

#11 Lasha Petree
: 6' 0"; Sophomore
: G

Braves Host Jackson State For Field Trip Day Tuesday

Players Mentioned

#23 Leti Lerma

#3 Gabi Haack

#11 Lasha Petree

Players Mentioned

#23 Leti Lerma

#3 Gabi Haack

#11 Lasha Petree