Women’s Basketball Returns Home To Host Valpo & Loyola

Duane Zehr

Women's Basketball 2/12/2020 10:30:00 AM

PEORIA, Ill. -- After closing out a season-long, three-game road swing with a win at I-74 rival Illinois State last Friday, Bradley Women's Basketball returns to Renaissance for four of the next six games with the Braves hosting Valparaiso (Friday) and Loyola (Sunday) during a two-game home stand this weekend.

Bradley (17-4 overall, 8-2 MVC) sits alone in second place in the Missouri Valley Conference standings heading into the weekend, a half-game ahead of third-place Drake. The Braves will be trying to complete the regular-season sweep of both weekend opponents, topping Valparaiso 75-61 on the road back on Jan. 19 and posting a 60-47 victory at Loyola in the MVC road opener last month.

Friday's 7 p.m. game against Valparaiso (13-9 overall, 5-6 MVC), which has won back-to-back games, will have a special promotion for Valentine's Day with the first 100 people receiving a free gift.

Loyola (15-7 overall, 6-5 MVC) enters a Friday game at Illinois State fourth in the Valley standings before the Ramblers visit Renaissance Coliseum for Sunday's 2 p.m. matchup with the Braves. Sunday will be Bradley's annual Play4Kay game with fans encouraged to wear pink, in addition to signing up to take part in the Coach G Play4Kay Challenge. Those interested in participating in the challenge are asked to make a pledge for each free throw made by the Braves during the month of February or can designate a flat dollar amount, with proceeds benefiting the Kay Yow Cancer Fund. Visit https://pledgeit.org/bradley-play4kay to make your pledge.

Friday's game will be available on ESPN+, while Sunday's tilt with Loyola can be viewed on ESPN3. BradleyBraves.com will provide links to live stats along with the WIRL 1290 AM radio broadcast for both games.

The Braves own a 10-2 lead in the all-time series with Valparaiso after a 75-61 win in Valparaiso, Ind., on Jan. 19 in the season's first meeting. Bradley is 5-0 in home games in the series and the Braves are 4-1 vs. Valparaiso since the Crusaders joined the MVC for the 2017-18 season.

Bradley owns a 26-16 advantage in the all-time series vs. Loyola after a 60-47 road win last month against the Ramblers. The Braves own a 13-5 edge in the series in games played in Peoria. Overall, Bradley has won three consecutive games vs. Loyola and seven of the last eight meetings with the lone loss during that stretch at Renaissance Coliseum. The Braves are 9-6 vs. the Ramblers since Loyola joined the MVC for the 2013-14 season and BU will be trying to sweep the regular-season series for the fourth time in the last six years.

Bradley picked up its third consecutive road win in the series with I-74 rival Illinois State, topping the Redbirds 66-62 last Friday to sweep the regular-season series. The Braves swept the regular-season series with Illinois State for the second consecutive year (first time since 2013-14 & 2014-15) and Bradley has won three consecutive road games against the Redbirds for the first time dating back to winning four consecutive games at Redbird Arena between the 1991-92 and 1994-95 campaigns. Fourth-year Bradley head coach Andrea Gorski was a senior on that 1991-92 squad and has won four of her last five trips to Redbird Arena with the Braves going back to her senior year.

Senior Chelsea Brackmann became the latest member of Bradley's 1,000-point club, topping the mark during BU's 66-62 win at Illinois State last week. Brackmann is the 20th player in program history to score 1,000 career points and needs two points to pass former teammate Anneke Schlueter for 19th on Bradley's all-time scoring chart. In fact, Brackmann is just 27 points from climbing four spots into 16th.

With junior Gabi Haack scoring her 1,000th-career point last month, the Braves have two active players with 1,000 career points or more on the same roster for the first time since Genny Mueller (1,269 points - 10th) and Dena Williams (1,030 points - 17th) wrapped up their careers in 2004-05.

Sophomore Lasha Petree broke out of a slump in a big way, connecting on four three-pointers and scoring a game-high 22 points in Bradley's win at Illinois State. In the four games leading into the road win, Petree was 8-for-46 from the field. Petree's performance should have been expected, however, with the sophomore scoring 16 or more in all five career outings against the Redbirds and scoring 21 or more in three of those games. She has averaged 20.4 points per game against Illinois State in her career, while shooting 16-for-32 (50%) from three-point range. Her numbers are even better in her two career games at Redbird Arena, where she has averaged 21.5 points per game and made 8-of-15 three-pointers.

Bradley has used the same starting five for 12 consecutive games and the combination of senior Chelsea Brackmann, juniors Gabi Haack & Nyjah White along with sophomores Tatum Koenig & Lasha Petree have started 19 of 21 games for the Braves. Bradley has not used the same starting five for at least 19 games of a season since the 2007-08 campaign when the Braves had the same starting five for 20 games. The last season Bradley had the same starting lineup for over 20 contests was 2000-01 (24), when the Braves had just eight scholarship players. Junior Gabi Haack has started 72 consecutive games dating back to her freshman season for the longest streak by a Brave since Heather Best started all 107 games of her career between 1995-99, while sophomore Tatum Koenig has started each of the last 36 contests.

The Braves follow up the weekend home stand by opening a two-game MVC road swing Thursday, Feb. 20 at three-time defending Valley regular-season champion Drake.

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