Braves Return Home To Host SIU & #17/21 Missouri State

Duane Zehr

Women's Basketball 2/26/2020 10:09:00 AM

PEORIA, Ill. -- Bradley Women's Basketball looks to avenge its only two losses from the first half of the Missouri Valley Conference schedule during the final home stand of the year, with the Braves hosting Southern Illinois Thursday (7 p.m.) before closing out the home schedule Sunday afternoon (2 p.m.) against nationally ranked Missouri State at Renaissance Coliseum

Alone in third in the MVC standings, Bradley (19-6 overall, 10-4 MVC) has locked up a top-six seed for the upcoming MVC Tournament and can secure at least a top-five league finish with one more victory. In addition, the Braves sit one win short of the fourth 20-win season in program history.

Southern Illinois (15-10 overall, 7-7 MVC) enters the weekend in a three-way tie for fifth in the league standings after posting a pair of home wins last weekend. The Salukis won the season's first meeting 64-50 earlier this month to close out the first half of the MVC schedule.

Missouri State, which is ranked 17th in the latest USA Today Coaches Poll and 21st in the Associated Press top-25, sits atop the MVC standings with a 23-3 overall record and 13-1 league record heading into a Thursday night game at Illinois State. The Bears bring a nine-game win streak into Thursday's outing against the Redbirds and snapped Bradley's season-long, eight-game win streak back in late in January in Springfield, Mo.

Sunday's game against Missouri State will also mark Senior Day for the Braves with seniors Amber Bozeman, Chelsea Brackmann and Ryan Wilkins recognized prior to the final home game of their Bradley careers.

Both games will be available on ESPN+, while BradleyBraves.com will provide links to the live stats along with the WIRL 1290 AM radio broadcast.

Bradley owns a 6-1 record against in-state opponents this season and the Braves are 14-1 in games played in the state of Illinois in 2019-20, thanks in part to a perfect 11-0 home record. In fact, Bradley will be trying to match the school season record of 12 home wins this weekend during the final home stand of the year. The Braves were 12-3 at Renaissance Coliseum last year to match the school record for home wins in a season also reached during the 2008-09 (12-2) and 1981-82 (12-4) campaigns. Since Bradley's last home loss to Missouri State last January, the Braves are 22-2 in regular-season games played in the state of Illinois; with both losses at Southern Illinois.

The Braves bring a 17-game home win streak into Thursday's game against Southern Illinois, which is tied for the fourth longest active streak in the country and is the longest in the MVC dating back to a 21-game home win streak by Drake between the 2015-16 season and the 2017-18 campaign.

With the 2019-20 home schedule reaching its end this weekend several Renaissance Coliseum career records are likely to fall this week. Junior Gabi Haack has scored 524 career points at Renaissance Coliseum (13.1 ppg) and enters the week 16 points short of breaking former teammate Anneke Schlueter's Coliseum record of 539 career points. In addition, senior Chelsea Brackmann is currently tied with Leti Lerma for the Renaissance Coliseum career rebounding mark at 433 career boards. Brackmann has also matched Vanessa Markert's facility record with 52 career blocked shots.

Bradley is 7-3 on Senior Day over the last 10 seasons after a 71-59 win over Loyola to close the 2018-19 home schedule. The Braves have won the last two times it has faced Missouri State on its Senior Day (2009-10 & 2005-06) and own a 2-1 on Senior Day against the Bears with the lone loss in 1998-99. Bradley's senior class has been a part of 64 victories, which matches the most wins in a four-year stretch since the 2011-12 senior class was part of 71 victories.

Sunday's game against nationally ranked Missouri State will mark just the second time a ranked team visits Renaissance Coliseum with the 2015-16 game against #17/24 Oklahoma the last home contest against a team ranked in the top 25. Bradley is looking for the first win in program history against a nationally ranked team. The Braves have played just six home games against top-25 teams with Missouri State representing three of those (2000-01, 1997-98 & 1991-92). Bradley will have at least three games against top-25 teams in the same season for the first time since 1997-98 (Nebraska & Missouri State twice).

Sophomore Tatum Koenig has certainly enjoyed playing schools from her home state, with the West Branch, Iowa, native following up an 18-point outing at Drake in which she made four three-pointers, by hitting four more trey's in Saturday's game at Northern Iowa in a 14-point effort. In four games this season against Drake & UNI, Koenig has averaged 13.8 points per game on 20-of-31 shooting (64.5 percent), while connecting on 13-of-20 (65 percent) three-pointers. In her career, Koenig has averaged 10.4 points, 2.4 assists and 1.6 steals per game, while owning a 1.90 assist-to-turnover ratio against the MVC Iowa schools with four of her eight career double-digit scoring efforts in those outings. She is a combined 30-for-55 (54.5 percent) from the field and 19-of-39 (48.7 percent) from three-point range in her career vs. Drake & Northern Iowa.

The Braves enter the week needing just two three-pointers to break the school season record for trey's (188) set during the 1994-95 season. Bradley is averaging a school record 7.5 three-pointers per game on the year. Haack and sophomore Lasha Petree are now the first Bradley duo with 60 or more made three's in a season with Petree's league-best total of 61 triples ranking eighth among Bradley season marks. Haack is the first Brave to hit 60 or more three-pointers in three different seasons. The pair is on pace to become the first duo in the MVC with 70 or more treys since Kylie Giebelhausen and Rishonda Napier of Southern Illinois in 2016-17.

Bradley follows up the home stand by closing out the regular-season schedule on the road, opening a two-game road swing Thursday, March 5 at Indiana State.

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