Women’s Basketball Faces Illinois State In MVC Quarterfinals

Patricia Díaz Velázquez

Women's Basketball 3/13/2019 1:02:00 PM

PEORIA, Ill. -- After sweeping I-74 rival Illinois State in the regular season, Bradley Women's Basketball will try to pick up its first Missouri Valley Conference Tournament victory against the Redbirds when the two teams meet in a 2:30 p.m. MVC quarterfinal Friday at the TaxSlayer Center in Moline, Ill.

Bradley's (20-9 overall, 10-8 MVC) fifth-place league finish was the team's best since 2009-10 and the Braves are one win short of matching the school season record of 21 set in 2008-09 (21-10) entering Friday's game with #4 seed Illinois State (18-11 overall, 11-7 MVC).

Friday's matchup marks the fourth Valley Tournament meeting between the rivals and first since 2013. All games of the MVC Tournament will be available on ESPN+ and BradleyBraves.com will provide links to live stats along with the radio broadcast. The Illinois State game will be carried locally on WIRL 1290 AM, while any subsequent games will be broadcast on 95.9 FM The Sports Nut.

Fans making the trip to the Quad Cities for the MVC Tournament are encouraged to attend a send-off (weather permitting) for the Bradley women's basketball team Friday at 12:45 p.m. at the Radisson on John Deere Commons (1415 River Drive, Moline, Ill.) featuring the Bradley Basketball band and cheerleaders. The Bradley pre-game party will be held inside the TaxSlayer Center at the Green Tree Brewery Lounge.

Bradley owns a 9-3 advantage in the series with Illinois State since the last MVC Tournament meeting with the Redbirds in 2013. Overall, Illinois State owns a 53-33 advantage in the series, which includes a 3-0 edge in neutral site contests. The teams will be meeting in the MVC Tournament for just the fourth time (2013, 2007 & 1996) with all three previous tournament matchups in the quarterfinals.

The Braves are playing in the quarterfinals for the fourth consecutive year and won't play in the opening round for the first time since 2013. Bradley is the #5 seed for the first time in program history and own a 1-1 record in the 4-5 game all-time. The Braves are in search of its sixth MVC Tournament semifinal appearance, with the last in 2009.

For the fifth consecutive year Bradley will head into the MVC Tournament looking to complete a three-game sweep of its opponent. The Braves took both regular-season matchups from Illinois State, winning at Redbird Arena 79-68 in late January and opened the final home stand of the season with a 75-65 victory on Feb. 22 at Renaissance Coliseum. Since the MVC started holding the league tournament at a neutral site in 2007-08, Bradley has played eight of its 17 tournament games against a team which it swept in the regular season not counting Friday's matchup with the Redbirds. The Braves are 6-3 in the MVC Tournament against teams it swept during the regular season over the last 12 years dating back to the 2006-07 tournament played in Des Moines, Iowa. For the first time since the 1986-87 season the Bradley men's and women's basketball teams both swept the regular-season series from I-74 rival ISU.

Bradley has three individuals with 60 or more assists for just the second time in the last six seasons. Sophomore Gabi Haack, who was named First-Team All-MVC Wednesday, leads the Braves in both scoring (15.2 ppg) and assists (2.3 apg) as she looks to become just the second Bradley player in the last 20 years to lead the team in both categories. Only seven individuals have paced Bradley in both scoring and assists in the same season with Raisa Taylor in 2010-11 the last to do so. Haack, who has averaged 3.1 assists per game in the last 11, is the first Brave with 440 points and 60 or more assists in a season since Heather Best in 1998-99.

Fellow sophomore Nyjah White and freshman Tatum Koenig are both dishing out 2.2 assists per game. Koenig, who averaged a team-best 2.7 assists per contest in Valley play, owns the ninth-best assist total by a Bradley freshman (64).

MVC All-Freshman Team selection Lasha Petree has certainly left her mark on the Bradley record book with her 378 points second among Bradley freshman scoring records, but Koenig stepped up in Valley play to average 6.2 points per game while dishing out a team-best 2.7 assists per outing. Combined the duo has scored 525 points, which ranks as the third most points by a freshman tandem at Bradley. The duo enters Friday's MVC Tournament quarterfinal matchup with Illinois State needing 28 points to become the highest scoring freshman pair in Bradley history. Judy Burns (489 points) and Roberta Cassidy (63 points) combined for 552 in 1981-82. Petree has led the Braves in scoring 10 times, while Koenig has been the team's top scorer once and an underclassmen has led the Braves in scoring in 23 of 29 games in 2018-19.

Petree is the top scoring freshman in the MVC since 2015-16 and just the third freshman in school history to take home All-MVC honors, earning honorable mention distinction. She joined Katie Yohn (2009-10) and Karin Nicholls (1986-87) as the only Bradley freshman to earn all-league honors.

Junior Chelsea Brackmann is Bradley's first individual to garner First-Team All-Valley honors and First-Team MVC Scholar-Athlete recognition in the same season in nearly two decades. Brackmann, who also earned MVC All-Defensive Team honors, tallied 11 of her 16 double-doubles in Valley play, where she averaged 14.0 points and 11.2 rebounds per outing. Her 16 double-doubles are the second most in school history behind Carrie Coffman's school season record of 20 set in 1994-95 and are the most in the MVC since Dyana Pierre of Southern Illinois had 16 in 2014-15. The fourth player in program history to collect 300 rebounds in a season, Brackmann needs just eight boards to break Leti Lerma's school season record of 324 rebounds set in 2016-17, which would push her season total among the top 10 in MVC history. She is one of six players in the country with 370 or more points, 315 rebounds, 35 assists, 25 blocks and 45 or more steals and the first Valley player to reach those totals since Drake's Rachel Hackbarth in 2011-12.

Senior Shunseere Kent scored a career-high 25 points Saturday at Drake to close out the regular season and has scored in double figures in five of the last six games. After battling injuries early in the season, Kent has averaged 12.8 points per game over the last six contests and 10.3 points per tilt over the last nine. Kent scored a then career-high 22 points in last year's MVC Tournament quarterfinal game against Missouri State and she averaged 11.5 points per game in the two regular-season meetings with Illinois State.

The winner of the game between Bradley and Illinois State will advance to Saturday's 1:30 p.m. semifinal to face the winner of Friday's first quarterfinal between #1 seed Drake and the opening-round game winner between #8 Indiana State and #9 Valparaiso.

Print Friendly Version