Women’s Basketball Hosts Indiana State Sunday

Josh Schwam

Women's Basketball 1/4/2020 12:45:00 PM

PEORIA, Ill. – Bradley Women's Basketball opened Missouri Valley Conference play with a convincing 82-51 victory over Evansville Friday and the Braves will be shooting for just the seventh 2-0 start to league play in program history Sunday when BU hosts Indiana State in a 2 p.m. game at Renaissance Coliseum.

Sophomore Lasha Petree scored a game-high 24 points and had four blocks in the conference opener against Evansville to help Bradley (10-2 overall, 1-0 MVC) extend its home win streak to 11 games. Indiana State (2-11 overall, 0-1 MVC) is trying to snap a nine-game losing skid after suffering an 83-69 loss at Illinois State Friday. Both of the wins by the Sycamores this season have been in road games played in Illinois with Indiana State earning road wins at Eastern Illinois and Illinois-Chicago back in November.

Bradley will host a free youth clinic following Sunday's outing at Renaissance Coliseum. The event is open to all grade school children (K - 8th grade) with Bradley Women's Basketball players and coaches providing instruction following the completion of the game. 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 the stream along with the WIRL 1290 AM radio broadcast in addition to the live stats.

Bradley swept the regular-season series with Indiana State for the first time since 1995-96 last year and the Braves are 3-2 in the last five matchups with the Sycamores. Overall, Indiana State holds a 50-27 edge in the series, which includes a 19-18 advantage in games played in Peoria. Thirteen of Bradley's last 15 victories in the series have been at home with the lone exceptions last year's road win and a victory in the 2009 MVC Tournament quarterfinals.

After opening the MVC slate with an 82-51 victory over Evansville, Bradley will be trying for just the seventh 2-0 start to league play in program history. The last time the Braves started Valley play 2-0 or better was 2017-18 (3-0). Fourth-year head coach Andrea Gorski has been involved in four of the previous six 2-0 conference starts for Bradley with three coming during her playing days – 1990-91 (3-0), 1989-90 (2-0) and 1988-89 (3-0). The other two 2-0 conference starts in school history came in 2008-09 (4-0) and 1996-97 (2-0).
Not only did Friday's 82-51 victory over Evansville mark the first time Bradley opened Missouri Valley Conference play with a home victory since 1996-97, it also marked the largest margin of victory for the Braves dating back to the 1994-95 season. That year Bradley started Valley play with an 87-48 home win over Northern Iowa.
Bradley has pushed its home win streak to 11 games with BU's last loss at Renaissance Coliseum on Jan. 18, 2019 against Missouri State. The 11-game home win streak is tied for the 13^th-longest active streak in the nation through games of Jan. 3 and is one short of matching the longest home win streak in Bradley history. The Braves had a 12-game home win streak between the 1978-79 (5) and 1979-80 (7) seasons.
For the second consecutive year Bradley has opened a season with a 10-2 record. The Braves now have a total of five seasons in which they started 10-2 or better and will be trying for just the third start of at least 11-2 to a season. The 2008-09 squad, which won a school record 21 games (21-10), was the last Bradley squad to open a season with a record 11-2 or better (13-2). The 2001-02 team was 11-2 to open the year and is the only other Bradley team to start 11-2 or better.
Sophomore Lasha Petree collected a career-high four blocks in Friday's win over Evansville to go with her game-high 24 points and helped Bradley tie a Renaissance Coliseum record with nine rejections. Petree leads the MVC in three-point field goals (34) and her team-best 16 blocks on the year rank third in the Valley. Through games of Jan. 3 Petree is the only player in the nation to connect on at least 30 three-pointers and also own 15 or more blocks. Last year, she finished with 56 trey's and a team-high 31 blocks.
Senior Chelsea Brackmann continues to close in on Bradley's career rebounding record, pulling down eight boards Friday to push her career total to 827. Brackmann has averaged 9.0 rebounds in her career against Indiana State, collecting seven or more rebounds in five of the six games and leads the MVC in rebounding this year at 9.5 boards per outing. She is 18 rebounds short of breaking Bradley's career rebounding mark of 844 currently held by Leti Lerma. Brackmann passed Lerma (905 points) on Bradley's career scoring list Friday against Evansville to move into 25^th in career scoring at BU and enters Sunday's game with 906 career points.
Lasha Petree collected her fourth 20-point game of the season and 10^th of her career with a game-high 24 points Friday against Evansville. Averaging a team-best 17.2 points per game to rank seventh in the MVC, Petree has scored 18 or more in five of the last seven games and averaged 20.2 points per outing over the last six outings. She pushed her career scoring total over 600 points Friday against Evansville in just her 42 career game as a Brave. Only five players in program history reached the 600-point mark faster than Petree and only two non-transfers have been quicker to 600 career points. The last Bradley player to reach 600 career points in 42 games or less was South Florida transfer Tammy Van Oppen during her senior year of 1996-97, reaching the mark in 41 games. Petree has 603 career points and is on pace to become just the fourth Bradley sophomore to reach 700 career points, joining a list which includes BU Hall of Fame members Judy Burns and Sara Bailey along with teammate Gabi Haack.
Bradley has been used to playing with the lead this season, especially at home, trailing a total of 13 minutes in the five games played at Renaissance Coliseum. In fact, the Braves have played with the lead for 177 of the 200 minutes played at home this year. Overall, Bradley has played from behind for a total of 129 minutes (26.9%) this season, while holding the lead for 330 of 480 minutes (68.8%). Going back to last season, Bradley has led 214 of 240 minutes (89%) in the last six home contests.

The Braves will follow up Sunday's game against Indiana State by closing out a season-long three-game home stand Friday, Jan. 10 against I-74 rival Illinois State (7 p.m.) at Renaissance Coliseum.

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