Haack & Brackmann Earn MVC Scholar-Athlete Honors

Women's Basketball 3/10/2020 9:30:00 AM

ST. LOUIS, Mo. -- Junior Gabi Haack (Elk River, Minn./Elk River) was voted a First-Team Missouri Valley Conference Scholar-Athlete and senior Chelsea Brackmann (New Berlin, Wis./Eisenhower) was named as a Second-Team Valley Scholar-Athlete selection according to an announcement by the league office Tuesday.

Bradley Women's Basketball had a pair of MVC Scholar-Athlete selections for the second consecutive year and fifth time in program history. Last year, Brackmann was a First-Team MVC Scholar-Athlete pick, while Haack was a second-team honoree in 2018-19. Haack and Brackmann are the fifth and sixth two-time MVC Scholar-Athlete honorees in program history and first Brave to earn multiple scholar-athlete recognition from the league since three-time selection Michelle Young wrapped up her career in 2014-15.

Haack is a three-time MVC Player of the Week performer this season, ranking 10th in the league in scoring at 13.3 points per game, in addition to pulling down 6.0 rebounds per outing to rank 13th in the league. Her 69 made three-pointers this season are second-most in the MVC and match her career-high, which is the fifth-best total in Bradley history. One of eight players in the country with 69 made three-pointers, 175 rebounds and at least 65 assists, Haack is second in Bradley history with 206 career made three-pointers and heads into this week's MVC Tournament needing five three-pointers to break the Bradley career mark.

An elementary education major with a 3.76 cumulative grade point average, Haack was the ninth junior in school history to reach 1,000 career points and is currently 11th all-time at the school with 1,161 career points. She has six 20-point games this season and 16 in her career, while her 64 career games scoring in double digits is tied for the 10th-best total in school history. A career 83.9 percent free throw shooter, Haack broke the Bradley record for consecutive made free throws earlier this year.

Bradley's all-time leading rebounder, Brackmann is one of 10 national finalists for the Senior CLASS Award. This season she is second in the Valley in rebounding at 8.5 boards per game to go with scoring 11.0 points per contest. Brackmann is tied for ninth in MVC history with 953 career rebounds and is 14th in career scoring at Bradley with 1,108 points. Shooting a team-best 52.9 percent this season, she was even better in league play where she averaged 12.3 points on 56.6 percent shooting.

A health science major with a 3.57 cumulative grade point average, Brackmann was named MVC Player of the Week after averaging 22.0 points and 10.0 rebounds per game, while shooting 75% from the field in home wins over Valparaiso and Loyola. She has five double-doubles on the year and 25 in her career, which is tied for second in Bradley history. Brackmann also ranks among the top six in Bradley history in both career made free throws (6th - 294) and blocked shots (4th - 126). She has had a late-season surge in which she has averaged 14.6 points per game on 63 percent shooting over her last seven games.

The criteria for the scholar-athlete team balloting parallels the CoSIDA (College Sports Information Directors of America) standards for Academic All-America voting. Nominees must be starters or important reserves, have played at least 75-percent of a team's games, and must carry at least a 3.30 GPA (on a 4.0 scale). Student-athletes must also have reached sophomore athletic and academic standing at their institution (true and redshirt freshmen are not eligible) and must have completed at least one full academic year at the institution. A total of 35 Valley student-athletes met the nomination criteria for scholar-athlete honors in 2019-20.

Haack and Brackmann have helped Bradley to a school record 22 wins this season (22-7 overall), while BU's 13-5 MVC record is the best league mark in program history. In fact, the Braves have the first back-to-back 20-win seasons in program history and are the first team in MVC history to post an improved win total in five consecutive years.

Bradley, which finished third in the MVC regular-season standings, faces #6 seed Valparaiso Friday in an 8:30 p.m. MVC Tournament quarterfinal in Moline, Ill.

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