Women’s Basketball Looks To Rebound At UNI Saturday

Duane Zehr

Women's Basketball 2/21/2020 4:07:00 PM

CEDAR FALLS, Iowa – Bradley Women's Basketball looks to rebound from an 85-72 loss at Drake in a battle for second place in the Missouri Valley Conference standings when the Braves close out a two-game road swing Saturday with a 2 p.m. game at Northern Iowa.

Now third in the MVC standings, Bradley (19-5 overall, 10-3 MVC) will be trying to lock up at least a top-five league finish with a win Saturday at the McLeod Center. Northern Iowa (15-10 overall, 7-7 MVC) slipped to fifth in the Valley standings following a 69-61 overtime loss Thursday night to Illinois State in Cedar Falls, where the Panthers are 9-2 on the year.

Sunday's game will be available on ESPN3 and BradleyBraves.com will provide links to live stats along with the WIRL 1290 AM radio broadcast.

Bradley's 61-47 victory over Northern Iowa last month in the season's first meeting snapped a 16-game win streak in the series for the Panthers. The Braves are still looking for their first first win at the McLeod Center as Bradley shoots to end a 15-game road losing streak vs. UNI which dates back to a 53-52 victory at the West Gym on Jan. 17, 2004. Bradley is trying to sweep the regular-season series against Northern Iowa for the first time since that 2003-04 campaign.

West Branch, Iowa, native Tatum Koenig has had a great deal of success against teams from her home state and Thursday was no different with the point guard scoring 18 points on 7-of-11 shooting and collecting three steals at Drake. Koenig, who was 6-for-6 from the field in the season's first meeting with Drake, has averaged 11.3 points per game on 17-of-30 shooting 57 percent shooting; including 11-for-22 from three-point range in her career against the Bulldogs. She has also had success against Northern Iowa, averaging 8.0 points and nearly four assists per game, while shooting 56.3 percent from the field vs. the Panthers. In seven career games against the MVC Iowa schools, Koenig has combined to average 9.9 points and 2.7 assists per outing while shooting 56.5 percent (26-of-46) and 15-of-32 (46.9 percent) from beyond the arc.
Sophomore Lasha Petree dished out a career-best six assists and scored a team-high 20 points Thursday at Drake for her ninth 20-point game of the season, in addition to extending her streak of consecutive games with a three-pointer to 21 games. Petree, who is tied with junior Gabi Haack with the most three-pointers in the MVC this season (60), is now the third player in MVC history to hit 60 three-pointers and block 40 or more shots in the same season. The last Valley player to make 60 trey's and block 40 or more shots in a season was Kylie Giebelhausen of Southern Illinois back when Bradley head coach Andrea Gorski was an assistant with the Salukis in 2015-16. The only other player in MVC history to accomplish the feat was Bradley's Heather Best in 1998-99. Petree is the only player in the nation with 60 made three's and 40 or more blocks.
Lasha Petree and Gabi Haack have both nailed a league-high 60 three-pointers this season to become the first Bradley duo with 60 or more trey's in the same year. Their 60 trey's is tied for the eighth-best season total in BU history. Haack became the first Bradley player to have three seasons with 60 or more three's, pushing her career trey total to 197. As a team, Bradley has 182 three-pointers, seven short of breaking the school season mark of 188 triples from the 1994-95 season. Scoring her 1,100^th-career point Thursday at Drake, Haack needs 14 more three's to break the Bradley career record for three-point makes and is 21 points from passing Eileen Yerkes (1,120 points) on Bradley's all-time scoring list.
Thursday's game at Drake was Lasha Petree's ninth 20-point game of the year, which is the most by a Bradley player in a season since Sara Bailey had 14 during the 2001-02 campaign. Petree now owns 15 career 20-point performances, which matches junior Gabi Haack's career total as the pair both have the most career 20-point games at BU since Genny Mueller finished up her time as Brave in 2004-05 with 19.
Lasha Petree continues to rocket up the Bradley career scoring list, with the sophomore scoring her 800^th career point Thursday at Drake. Petree, who climbed three spots on BU's scoring chart into 36^th, now has 803 career points and joined Judy Burns (1981-84) as the only Bradley sophomores to reach the 800-point mark. Petree is the fifth Bradley player to score 800 career points in fewer than 60 games (first since Sara Bailey in 2001-02), reaching the mark in 54 contests.

Following Saturday's game at Northern Iowa, Bradley returns to Renaissance Coliseum for the final home stand of the regular season. The Braves open the stretch Thursday with a 7 p.m. game against Southern Illinois.

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Players Mentioned

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

#13 Tatum Koenig: G; 5' 7"; Sophomore

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

Players Mentioned

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

#13 Tatum Koenig
: 5' 7"; Sophomore
: G

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

Women’s Basketball Looks To Rebound At UNI Saturday

Players Mentioned

#3 Gabi Haack

#13 Tatum Koenig

#11 Lasha Petree

Players Mentioned

#3 Gabi Haack

#13 Tatum Koenig

#11 Lasha Petree