Braves Visit Evansville To Close Regular Season

Patricia Díaz Velázquez

Women's Basketball 3/6/2020 10:00:00 AM

EVANSVILLE, Ind. – In what has already been a historic season, the 2019-20 Bradley Women's Basketball team will look to add its impressive resume when the Braves try to earn a program record 22nd victory Saturday at Evansville in the final contest of the regular season.

Bradley (21-7 overall, 12-5 MVC) matched the school record for overall and Missouri Valley Conference victories with Friday's 68-59 win at Indiana State. The Braves will close out the 2019-20 regular-season schedule Saturday with a 1 p.m. game at Evansville (3-25 overall, 0-17 MVC) at Meeks Family Fieldhouse in Evansville, Ind.

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

The Braves won the season's first meeting with the Purple Aces 82-51 in Peoria in the conference opener for both teams back in early January. Bradley has won six consecutive games in the series with UE and now holds a 34-20 lead in the all-time series, which includes eight of the last nine. Evansville holds a slim 13-12 edge in games played in Evansville, but the Braves have won four of the last seven road games vs. the Aces and seven of the last 11 played in Evansville.

A win Saturday at Evansville would give Bradley a historic victory with the Braves matching the school record for overall (21) and Missouri Valley Conference (12) wins Thursday at Indiana State. Thursday's win made the Braves the first team in Missouri Valley Conference history to post an improved overall win total in five consecutive seasons. Bradley's only previous team to win 21 games was in 2008-09 (21-10) and the Braves have won as many as 12 league games just twice. The 2009-10 team that reached the second round of the WBI was the last Bradley team to go 12-6 (T3rd). Head Coach Andrea Gorski was part of Bradley's first team that was 12-6 in league play (4^th) as a sophomore in 1989-90.
Senior Chelsea Brackmann has enjoyed trips to the state of Indiana with the team captain collecting four of her 25 career double-doubles in the Hoosier State after her 14-point and 15-rebound effort at Indiana State Thursday. Brackmann turned in double-doubles in three of her four career games in Terre Haute, Ind., with the lone exception a 14-point, 7-rebound effort as a sophomore. In fact, she averaged 18.0 points per game on 54 percent shooting and 12.8 rebounds per game in four career games at the Hulman Center. In her 13 career games in the state of Indiana, Brackmann has averaged more than three points per game more (12.3 ppg) than her career average otherwise (9.1 ppg) on 56.3 percent shooting.
Sophomore Lasha Petree scored a game-high 24 points in Thursday's win at Indiana State for her 10^th outing this season with 20 or more points. Fourth in the MVC in scoring at 16.8 points per game, Petree has 469 points this season for the 10^th-best season total in Bradley history and most points in a season by a Brave since Sara Bailey had 487 points as a junior in 2001-02. Petree is in search of the first 500-point season at Bradley since 2000-01 and would be just the fifth Bradley player to reach the mark.
Junior Gabi Haack has had a fair amount of success in her two outings at Meeks Family Fieldhouse, scoring 15 or more points in each of her two previous road games at Evansville. In fact, she has averaged 17.5 points per game on 10-of-19 shooting, including 5-for-12 from three-point range in two career games at UE. She has also averaged 6.5 rebounds and 3.5 assists per game without committing a turnover in those contests.
Senior Chelsea Brackmann is poised to join an exclusive group as she closes in on the top 10 in career rebounding in MVC history. Her 15-rebound effort at Indiana State Thursday pushed her school-record career total to 944 as she passed Wichita State's Antionette Wells (2004-07) for 11^th in league history. Brackmann enters Saturday's game at Evansville needing two boards to pass Amy Rakers for 10^th in Valley history (945) and is just 10 short of overtaking Drake's Rachel Hackbarth (953) for ninth.
Sophomore Lasha Petree knocked down 4-of-6 three-pointers Thursday at Indiana State to push her season three-point total to 66. The first player in Missouri Valley Conference history to make 65 three-pointers and block at least 45 shots in a season, Petree is one of just seven players in the nation since the start of 2015-16 with 65 trey's and 45 blocks. She needs four three-pointers and four blocked shots to become just the fourth player in the country over the last five years with 70 three-pointers and 50 blocks.
Bradley's win at Indiana State gave the Missouri Valley Conference three teams with 21 or more victories for the first time since 2015-16 and just the third time in the last nine years.
The Braves will face the winner of Saturday's 2 p.m. game between Valparaiso and Southern Illinois in next Friday's 8:30 p.m. quarterfinal of the MVC Tournament in Moline, Ill. Bradley has not faced Valpo in the MVC Tournament and a matchup with Southern Illinois would mark the first conference tournament meeting between the two teams since an opening round contest in 2011-12. Bradley is 0-5 all-time against SIU in the MVC Tournament, dropping an opening round game in 2007-08. The Braves and Salukis would be meeting in the quarterfinals or later for the first time since 1989-90 (semifinals), which was head coach Andrea Gorski's sophomore season.