Women’s Basketball Set For Iowa Road Swing

Duane Zehr

Women's Basketball 2/19/2020 12:28:00 PM

PEORIA, Ill. -- Currently alone in second in the Missouri Valley Conference standings, Bradley Women's Basketball faces the two teams directly behind it in the league standings this week with the Braves visiting three-time defending MVC regular season champion Drake Thursday, before closing out a two-game road swing Saturday afternoon at Northern Iowa.

Bradley (19-4 overall, 10-2 MVC) brings a three-game win streak into Thursday's 6 p.m. game at third-place Drake (18-7 overall, 10-3 MVC) as the Braves shoot for their first regular-season series sweep of the Bulldogs since 2009-10 after winning the season's first meeting 77-76 at Renaissance Coliseum last month. The winner of Thursday's game at the Knapp Center in Des Moines, Iowa, will hold sole possession of second place in the MVC standings.

Northern Iowa (15-9 overall, 7-6 MVC) is fourth in the Valley standings heading into a Thursday night home game vs. fifth-place Illinois State. Saturday's 2 p.m. contest at the McLeod Center in Cedar Falls, Iowa, concludes a stretch in which the Braves will have played five of seven games on the road. Bradley snapped a 16-game losing skid in the series with Northern Iowa last month with a 61-47 home victory and will be trying to end a 15-game road losing streak to the Panthers, which dates back to Bradley's last regular-season series sweep of UNI in 2003-04.

Thursday's game vs. Drake will be available on ESPN+, while Saturday's contest at Northern Iowa can be viewed on ESPN3. BradleyBraves.com will provide links to live stats along with the WIRL 1290 AM radio broadcast.

The Braves are looking to reach the 20-win mark for just the fourth time in program history, entering the road swing with a 19-4 record. BU has two seasons with 20 victories at the NCAA Division I level after last year's 20-10 campaign. Bradley is 39-14 since the start of the 2018-19 campaign to match the most overall wins in a two-year stretch in program history originally set by the 1979-80 (20-9) and 1980-81 (19-8) teams. The Braves have at least 10 MVC victories in back-to-back seasons for the third time in program history and first since the 2009-10 squad followed up a 11-7 league mark in 2008-09 with a 12-6 Valley record.

Bradley is the only team in the MVC to have four players averaging 10 or more points per game, with four Braves scoring at least 10.8 points per outing. Only seven previous Bradley squads have had four individuals average double figures in scoring with the last BU team to do so in 1995-96. Fourth-year Bradley head coach Andrea Gorski was a part of four of those teams during her time as a student-athlete from 1988-89 to 1991-92. In Valley play, the Braves have four individuals scoring over 12.0 points per contest. Bradley's 71.7 points per game average would be the team's best scoring average since Gorski's junior year of 1990-91 when the Braves scored 72.6 points per outing.

Gorski has collected 64 wins during her tenure at her alma mater and is looking to make it five consecutive seasons the Braves have posted an improved record. Her 64 victories are the most in the first four years of a coaches' tenure at Bradley, surpassing the 63 wins by Jan Winkler (63-31) during her four seasons on The Hilltop from 1977-78 through 1980-81. The Braves had not won 64 games in any four-year stretch since between the 2009-10 and 2012-13 campaigns (64).

Junior Nyjah White has been a big reason for the Braves success in MVC play, averaging nearly five more points per game in MVC games (13.3 ppg) than she did during the non-conference portion of the schedule (8.5 ppg). In addition, she has dished out 3.2 assists per game while owning a 1.27 assist-to-turnover ratio against Valley foes vs. 2.5 assists with a 0.96 assist-to-turnover ratio before league play. White shot 45.8 percent from the field during the non-conference schedule, but is shooting 54.6 percent in conference outings.

Junior Gabi Haack and sophomore Lasha Petree combine to give Bradley one of only seven sets of teammates in the nation (through Feb. 16) with 55 or more trey's. On pace to become Bradley's first duo to both hit 60 three-pointers, Haack and Petree have combined for 115 three-pointers which is more than or equal to the total for 74 teams in the country (through Feb. 16). As a team, the Braves are averaging a school record 7.5 trey's per game and the squad's 172 triples is already the sixth-best season total in Bradley history, 17 short of breaking the record with at least seven games to play.

Petree's league-best 59 three-pointers ranks as the ninth-best season total in Bradley history, while Haack has 56 triples this year and needs four more makes from beyond the arc to become the first Brave to make 60 or more three-pointers in three different seasons.

The Braves follow up the weekend road swing with the final home stand of the regular-season. Bradley hosts Southern Illinois Thursday, Feb. 27 (7 p.m.) to open the home stand, which wraps up Sunday, March 1 against #17/23 Missouri State.

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Players Mentioned

#3 Gabi Haack: G; 5' 10"; Junior

#11 Lasha Petree: G; 6' 0"; Sophomore

#45 Nyjah White: F; 5' 11"; Junior

Players Mentioned

#3 Gabi Haack
: 5' 10"; Junior
: G

#11 Lasha Petree
: 6' 0"; Sophomore
: G

#45 Nyjah White
: 5' 11"; Junior
: F

Women’s Basketball Set For Iowa Road Swing

Players Mentioned

#3 Gabi Haack

#11 Lasha Petree

#45 Nyjah White

Players Mentioned

#3 Gabi Haack

#11 Lasha Petree

#45 Nyjah White