Women’s Basketball Faces Valpo Friday In MVC Quarterfinals

Duane Zehr

Women's Basketball 3/11/2020 11:04:00 AM

PEORIA, Ill. -- Bradley Women's Basketball will look to add to what has already been a historic season when the Braves open play at the 2020 Missouri Valley Conference Tournament Friday against #6 seed Valparaiso in an 8:30 p.m. quarterfinal contest at the TaxSlayer Center in Moline, Ill.

Posting the best MVC finish in program history (sole possession of third), Bradley (22-7 overall, 13-5) has a school record for both overall (22) and MVC (13) wins in a season. The Braves earned their highest seed for the MVC Tournament (#3) in program history and will face #6 Valparaiso (17-12 overall, 9-9 MVC) in Friday's final semifinal game at 8:30 p.m.

Friday's game marks the first neutral site game between Bradley and Valparaiso and is also the first conference tournament meeting between the Braves and the newest league member.

All games of the MVC Tournament will be available on ESPN+ and BradleyBraves.com will provide links to live stats along with the WIRL 1290 AM radio broadcast.

Fans making the trip to the Quad Cities for the MVC Tournament are encouraged to attend a send-off (weather permitting) for the Bradley women's basketball team Friday at 6:30 p.m. at the Radisson on John Deere Commons (1415 River Drive, Moline, Ill.) featuring the Bradley Basketball band and cheerleaders. The Bradley pre-game gathering will be held immediately following the send-off inside the TaxSlayer Center at the Green Tree Brewery Lounge.

Bradley swept the regular-season series with Valparaiso, winning the last meeting 90-69 in Peoria on Feb. 14 and the Braves have won three straight against the Crusaders to take an 11-2 lead in the all-time series. Bradley is 5-1 against Valparaiso since the Crusaders joined the MVC for the 2017-18 season and head coach Andrea Gorski is 6-1 against the Crusaders.

Bradley is playing in the quarterfinals for the fifth consecutive year. The Braves are in search of their sixth MVC Tournament semifinal appearance, with the last in 2009.

This year's 13 league wins surpassed Bradley's previous school record of 12 last done by the 2009-10 (T3rd) squad and originally set during head coach Andrea Gorski's sophomore season of 1989-90 (4th). The Braves were the #4 seed both times they went 12-6 in conference action with this year's #3 seed the best in program history. Bradley had finished as high as tied for third twice previously with the 1991-92 team, which was Gorski's senior year, joining the 2009-10 squad.

The Braves will be playing in the late quarterfinal game for the first time since 2012-13 (6th) and Bradley will play a game that tips off later than 7 p.m. (CT) for the first time since a Nov. 15, 2013 (home vs. Stony Brook). This year's Bradley team is the sixth in program history to win at least 11 conference games, with Gorski a part of two of those teams as a student-athlete (1989-90 and 1991-92).

For the sixth consecutive year Bradley will head into the MVC Tournament looking to complete a three-game sweep of its opening opponent. The Braves took both regular-season matchups from Valparaiso. Since the MVC started holding the league tournament at a neutral site in 2007-08, Bradley has played nine of its 18 tournament games against a team which it swept in the regular season and is 5-4 in those outings.

Bradley is 3-1 in neutral site games this season and the Braves are 7-4 in neutral contests under fourth-year head coach Andrea Gorski. In fact, Bradley is 6-3 in their last nine neutral site contests over the last three years. Coupled with the team's best road record (7-5) since going 8-5 on the road in 1996-97, the Braves have the most wins away from home (10) in a season since 2011-12 (10) and sit one victory short of matching the school record for road/neutral site wins (11) set in 1979-80. Missouri State (11) is the only other Valley team with at least 10 wins away from home.

A First-Team All-MVC pick, sophomore Lasha Petree scored 19 points in last year's MVC Tournament quarterfinal loss to Illinois State and enters the Valley Tournament fourth in the league in scoring at 16.5 points per game. Petree has 478 points this season for the ninth-best season point total in Bradley history and is 22 points from posting just the fifth 500-point season in Bradley history.

Junior Gabi Haack has shot 47.6 percent in three career MVC Tournament games and averaged 15.0 points per game in her career at the TaxSlayer Center. A repeat First-Team All-MVC pick, Haack enters the weekend five three-pointers from breaking Katie Yohn's school career record of 210 career trey's set during the 2012-13 season.

Senior Chelsea Brackmann was also a repeat First-Team All-MVC selection this year and Bradley's all-time leading rebounder has climbed into a tie for ninth in career rebounding in MVC history at 953 career boards to match Drake's Rachel Hackbarth (2008-12). Currently second in the MVC in rebounding (8.5 per game), Brackmann has averaged 14.6 points per game on 63 percent shooting over her last seven outings.

The winner of Friday's contest between Bradley and Valparaiso will advance to Saturday's 4 p.m. semifinal to face the winner of Friday's third quarterfinal game between #2 seed Drake and opening-round game winner of #7 Southern Illinois and #10 Evansville.

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