Women’s Basketball Closes Regular Season At UNI & #23 Drake

Duane Zehr

Women's Basketball 3/6/2019 11:10:00 AM

PEORIA, Ill. -- After picking up its 20th win of the season in the final home game of the year, Bradley Women's Basketball closes out the regular-season schedule on the road with the Braves taking on Northern Iowa Thursday in Cedar Falls, Iowa, before facing league-leading and 23rd-ranked Drake Saturday afternoon in Des Moines, Iowa.

Bradley (20-7 overall, 10-6 MVC) enters Thursday's 7 p.m. game at Northern Iowa (18-10 overall, 11-5 MVC) one game behind the Panthers for third in the Missouri Valley Conference standings. The Braves own the second longest active win streak in the league at three games after last Saturday's 71-59 victory over Loyola to wrap up the home schedule and are tied with Illinois State for fourth in the conference heading into the final two games of the regular season.

Saturday's 2 p.m. contest at the Knapp Center in Des Moines, Iowa, will be Bradley's first conference game against a ranked team since 2003-04. Drake (23-5 overall, 15-1 MVC) owns a one-game lead in the Valley standings over second-place Missouri State prior to Thursday night's home game against Illinois State.

Both games will be available on ESPN+ and BradleyBraves.com will provide links to audio streams and live stats for both contests. Thursday's game at UNI will be broadcast in the Peoria area on WIRL 1290 AM, while Saturday's matchup with Drake can be heard on The Sports Nut 95.9 FM.

The Panthers pulled out an overtime win over the Braves in the season's first meeting in early January and UNI has won 15 consecutive games in the series. Overall, Northern Iowa owns a 41-34 lead in the all-time series, which includes a 22-12 advantage in meetings in Cedar Falls, Iowa. Bradley has not won a game at the McLeod Center and has lost 14 consecutive road games to the Panthers dating back to a 53-52 win on Jan. 17, 2004.

Drake took the season's first meeting with Bradley at Renaissance Coliseum back on Jan. 4 in the conference opener for both squads and the Bulldogs have won the last 11 meetings. Owning a 58-15 all-time lead in the series, Drake is 30-5 at home against Bradley. The Braves have lost eight consecutive road games in the series going back to a 61-58 win on Jan. 24, 2010, which was Bradley's last victory in the state of Iowa.

Bradley tied a school season record with 12 home victories this year (12-3), but the Braves have also had success on the road in 2018-19. BU closes out the regular-season schedule on the road for the first time since 2015-16 and will play at Drake to finish out the slate for the first time since 2005-06. The Braves are 7-4 on the road this year for the most road wins dating back to an 8-7 road mark in 2011-12. Bradley has won four Valley road games in back-to-back seasons and will be trying to win five league road games for the first time since head coach Andrea Gorski's senior year of 1991-92 (6-3).

Bradley enters the final two games of the regular season with potential to earn the #3 seed, but can fall no lower than the #5 seed for next week's Missouri Valley Conference Tournament in Moline, Ill. The Braves need a victory at Northern Iowa to have any chance at the #3 seed and Bradley owns the head-to-head tie-breaker with I-74 rival Illinois State, which BU is currently tied with at 10-6 heading into the Iowa road swing for both squads. Either way, Bradley has earned its first top half conference finish since tying for third with a 12-6 mark in 2009-10.

For the first time in a decade and just the third time in program history, Bradley has won 20 games in a season. The Braves topped Loyola 71-59 Saturday for the 20th win of the year, marking the second time in school history Bradley reached the 20-win mark when playing a full NCAA Division I schedule. With at least three games remaining counting the conference tournament, the Braves are one short of matching the school record for wins in a season set during a 21-10 campaign in 2008-09. The only other 20-win season in Bradley history was in 1979-80 (20-9).

Bradley has attempted 24 or more free throws in 16 of 27 games this season and the Braves rank eighth in the nation in free throw attempts per game (22.44) through games of March 3. Bradley had just four games during the course of the entire 2017-18 season in which it shot 24 or more free throws. Bradley is 25-3 under third-year head coach Andrea Gorski when attempting 24 or more free throws in a contest. Shooting 72.6 percent from the charity stripe, which would be the team's best since 2014-15 (73.0), the Braves have averaged 16.30 makes per outing which is the fifth best average in the country and Bradley is 19th nationally in percentage of points coming from free throws (22.59%).

Bradley already owns its highest MVC win total (10) since capping the 2009-10 league slate with a 12-6 mark with two regular-season games left to play. The Braves were 5-4 the first time through the conference and own a 5-2 mark since hitting the halfway point of the Valley schedule. Bradley has made a habit of being better in the second half of league play over the years with seven of the last eight seasons resulting in a better second half for the Braves. In fact, Bradley has been better the second time through the Valley in 13 of 16 seasons. Saturday's win against Loyola gave Bradley four sweeps of MVC opponents, marking the first time the Braves swept four league foes since 2009-10 (4).

For the third time this season, junior Chelsea Brackmann has collected three consecutive double-doubles, tallying a career-high 25 points to go with 13 rebounds Thursday against Valparaiso followed by a 10-point, 11-rebound effort in Saturday's win over Loyola. Brackmann has tallied 10 of her 15 double-doubles in Valley play, where she is averaging 14.8 points and 11.6 rebounds per outing. Her 15 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 15 in 2015-16. In fact, the 15 double-doubles are tied for the 14th-best season total in league history. The fourth player in program history to collect 300 rebounds in a season, Brackmann needs just 25 boards to break Leti Lerma's school season record of 324 rebounds set in 2016-17. She is one of five players in the country with 350 or more points, 300 rebounds, 35 assists, 25 blocks and 40 or more steals.

Freshman guard Lasha Petree took home her fifth MVC Newcomer of the Week award Monday after averaging 20.0 points per game in wins against Valparaiso and Loyola last week. Petree, who is averaging 17.0 points per game over the last seven games, has pushed her season point total to 370 which is second all-time among Bradley freshmen behind Judy Burns 1981-82 freshman scoring record of 489 points. In fact, Petree is the top scoring freshman in the MVC since Drake's Sara Rhine had 440 points in 2015-16. Petree is shooting 45 percent (18-for-40) from beyond the arc over the last seven games in addition to averaging 6.6 free throw attempts per contest during that stretch.

Sophomore Gabi Haack has broken into the top 40 in career scoring at Bradley and her 739 career points are the second-most by a Bradley sophomore behind only Judy Burns, who had 1,120 points by the end of her sophomore season. Haack is the first Bradley player with 400 points and 60 or more assists in a season since Heather Best in 1998-99. In addition, Haack is three rebounds from becoming just the third player in the MVC since at least 1995-96 with 65 three-pointers, 110 free throws and 150 or more rebounds in the same season as she looks to join 2012-13 MVC Player of the Year Jacqui Kalin and 2004-05 MVC Player of the Year Jenni Lingor in that group.

Bradley follows up the road swing with the 2019 MVC Tournament, which will be held March 14-17 at the TaxSlayer Center in Moline, Ill. The Braves will play in Friday's quarterfinals at either 2:30 p.m. as the #3 seed or in the 8:30 p.m. matchup between the #4 and #5 seeds.

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