Braves Face Evansville Sunday To Wrap Up Play4Kay Weekend

Duane Zehr

Women's Basketball 2/9/2019 12:46:00 PM

PEORIA, Ill. – After a thrilling comeback victory against Indiana State Friday, Bradley Women's Basketball will try for its third straight Missouri Valley Conference win Sunday when the Braves host Evansville in a 2 p.m. game at Renaissance Coliseum.

Bradley (16-5 overall, 6-4 MVC) rallied from 17 points down with just under five minutes left to defeat Indiana State 81-80 Friday and hold onto sole possession of fourth place in the Missouri Valley Conference standings. Evansville (2-19 overall, 0-9 MVC) suffered an 82-59 loss at Illinois State Friday in Normal, Ill.

The matchup with the Purple Aces concludes Play4Kay Weekend with fans encouraged to wear pink to the game in addition to taking part in the Coach G Play4Kay Challenge (Details HERE). The Braves will also hold a free youth clinic, open to all grade school children (K - 8th grade) with Bradley Women's Basketball players and coaches providing instruction. No pre-registration is required, but participants are asked to wear active wear and gym shoes.

Sunday's game will be available on ESPN+ and BradleyBraves.com will provide links to live stats along with the WIRL 1290 AM broadcast. Braves Club members are invited to a pre-game "Chalk Talk" 20 minutes prior to tip-off of each home game in the Braves Club Room.

The season's first matchup with Evansville resulted in a 75-68 Bradley victory and the Braves have won four consecutive games in the series. In fact, BU is 11-4 in the last 15 games against the Purple Aces and 16-5 over the last 10 years. Bradley owns a 32-20 advantage in the all-time series, which includes an 18-6 mark in home games.

Friday's victory against Indiana State improved Bradley to 8-3 at Renaissance Coliseum this season as the Braves matched their most home wins since finishing the 2012-13 campaign with an 8-5 mark and tied the record for most home wins in the nine-year history of the facility. Bradley is looking for its first season with at least nine home wins since 2009-10 (9-3).
With eight regular-season Missouri Valley Conference games remaining on the schedule, Bradley has already matched its conference win total from last year. The 6-4 league record for the Braves is the team's best start to league play since an 8-3 start to the 2009-10 conference slate. Bradley has 19 Valley wins during head coach Andrea Gorski's two-plus years on The Hilltop, which are the most conference wins for the Braves over a three-year stretch since collecting 20 wins between the 2011-12 and 2013-14 seasons.
Bradley has already picked up three more wins than the Braves had during the course of the entire 2017-18 season (13-18) and the 2018-19 campaign marks the third time in the last four years BU has won at least three more games than the previous season. Bradley's 16-5 record is not only the team's highest win total since the 2011-12 season (18-16) it marks the Braves best record through 22 games dating back to a 17-4 start to the 1981-82 season. A victory Sunday against Evansville would match Bradley's best record through 22 games (17-5) by that 1981-82 squad.
Bradley currently has three players averaging 12.8 points per game, with sophomore Gabi Haack pacing the group at 16.7 points per contest. The Braves have not had a player averaged at least 12.8 ppg in a season since Michelle Young scored 14.3 points per tilt as a junior in 2013-14. In fact, Bradley has not had three players average at least 12.0 points per game in the same season since 1994-95 (Carrie Coffman – 17.6 ppg, Michelle Nason – 16.6 ppg & Carolyn Hagerty – 14.1 ppg).
Sunday's game against Evansville will mark Bradley's third game in four outings against teams from the state of Indiana. Sophomore Gabi Haack has scored 15 or more points in each of the last seven games against teams from the Hoosier State dating back to last season. This year she has torched Indiana opponents for 18.2 points and 6.6 rebounds per game. In fact, in 12 career games against teams from the state of Indiana Haack has averaged 16.5 points per game on 47 percent shooting and is 32-for-79 (40.5 percent) from three-point range. She has also pulled down 6.8 rebounds per game, while dishing out 31 assists with just 13 turnovers. Junior Chelsea Brackmann has also had success in those games, averaging 10.1 points per game on 54.5 percent shooting and 7.5 rebounds in 18 career games against teams from Indiana.
Freshman Lasha Petree has certainly shown the ability to score in bunches and Friday's fourth quarter was a good example of that with the guard scoring 13 points in a 46-second span to help lead Bradley's comeback. Petree scored 16 of her 18 points against Indiana State in the second half, including 14 in the fourth quarter. She now has a team-high five halves in which she has scored at least 15 points. Petree's 269 points this season rank as the 10^th-best scoring total by a Bradley freshman and she is averaging 15.5 points per game in contests played at Renaissance Coliseum.
Sophomore Gabi Haack turned in her fifth 20-point outing of the season in Friday's win against Indiana State and knocked down 3-of-6 three-pointers in the victory. Haack now has 59 three-pointers which ranks 10^th among Bradley season marks and she has joined Michelle Nason as the only players to have two of Bradley's top 10 season three-point totals with Haack's 68 three-pointers last year ranking fifth in school history. Haack has hit a three-pointer in 15 consecutive games to tie the fifth longest streak in Bradley history. She is one of five players in the nation with 59 made three-pointers and 90 or more made free throws and the only one in that group to also have 120 rebounds.
Averaging a team-best 16.7 points per game on the year, sophomore Gabi Haack has been even better in Missouri Valley Conference play at 17.4 points per outing. Her 351 points this season are the most by a Brave since Michelle Young finished the 2013-14 season with 429 points. Haack, who has scored in double figures in 19 consecutive games and 22 of the last 23 dating back to last season, needs 12 points for the highest point total by a Bradley underclassmen since Sara Bailey was second in the MVC in scoring as a sophomore to Missouri State's Jackie Stiles with 521 points as a sophomore in 2000-01. Haack is 22 points short of 700 for her career as she looks to join Judy Burns (1981-84) and Sara Bailey (1999-02) as the only Bradley players to reach 700 career points as sophomores.

Bradley follows Sunday's home game with a Friday night contest at Southern Illinois (6 p.m.) to open a two-game weekend road swing that also includes a game at Missouri State Sunday, Feb. 17.

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