Women’s Basketball Returns Home To Host Loyola

BradleyBraves.com

Women's Basketball 1/20/2021 1:06:00 PM

PEORIA, Ill. -- Fresh off sweeping a road series at Evansville this past weekend, Bradley Women's Basketball brings a season-best, five-game win streak into a home series against Loyola Friday and Saturday at Renaissance Coliseum.

The Braves and Ramblers tip off the weekend set Friday at 6 p.m. and follow it up Saturday afternoon at 4 p.m. to conclude the regular-season series.

Tied for second in the MVC standings with Drake, Bradley (9-4 overall, 5-1 MVC) has won five straight since opening Valley play with a setback to the Bulldogs in Des Moines, Iowa, back on New Year's Day. Loyola (4-3 overall, 2-1 MVC) had two of its last three weekend series postponed and is coming off a 53-36 road win at Valparaiso Tuesday night in the team's lone outing since Jan. 2.

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

Winners of each of the last four matchups and eight of the last nine meetings with Loyola, Bradley owns a 27-16 lead in the all-time series. The Braves are 14-5 at home against the Ramblers. Head Coach Andrea Gorski owns an 8-1 record against Loyola and Bradley is 11-6 in the series since Loyola joined the MVC for the 2013-14 season.

Bradley is 5-1 or better to start Missouri Valley Conference play for the second time in program history. Last year, Bradley rattled off seven consecutive victories to open the Valley slate for the best start to conference play in school history. The Braves are looking for the fourth six-game MVC win streak in program history (all since 2008-09).

Bradley has a seven-game win streak against teams from the state of Illinois and the Braves own a 11-1 record in the last 12 games played from the Land of Lincoln. In fact, Bradley is 19-3 in games against games teams from the Prairie State since the start of the 2018-19 campaign and the Braves have won 14 consecutive home games against in-state opponents dating back to a home loss to Illinois State on March 3, 2018. Overall, Bradley is 30-14 against teams from Illinois under fifth-year head coach Andrea Gorski, which includes a 19-5 home mark.

Senior Gabi Haack hit five first-half three-pointers and finished with season highs of 27 points and six assists to go with eight rebounds in the series finale at Evansville Saturday. Haack, who finished 6-for-10 from beyond the arc in the contest, has shot 32-of-54 (59.3 percent) from the field and is 17-for-33 (51.5 percent) from beyond the arc since halftime of the final game of the series at Drake after she shot 3-for-20 to start conference action. Haack turned in the first 25-points, five-assist game for a Brave since Shronda Butts in a double overtime contest at Milwaukee Dec. 4, 2012 and had the first outing by a Bradley with at least 25 points, seven rebounds and five or more assists dating back to Raisa Taylor's 29-point, seven-rebound, six-assist effort against Indiana State on March 5, 2011.

Junior Lasha Petree scored a game-high 20 points in the series opener at Evansville for her fourth consecutive 20-point performance. The leading scorer in the MVC at 20.8 points per outing, Petree has eight 20-point efforts this year and 24 in her career. The four-game streak of 20+ points is tied for the second longest streak in program history and was the longest by a Brave since Sara Bailey had a 10-game streak between the 2000-01 and 2001-02 campaigns. Petree is the only Bradley player to score at least 20 points in four consecutive MVC contests. She nearly made it five consecutive games with 20 or more points. After going scoreless (0-for-13) to open the Jan. 16 game at Evansville, Petree scored 15 points in a 7:35 span between the end of the third quarter and early stages of the fourth period, finishing with 15 points.

The Braves follow up the weekend home series against Loyola by finishing off the first half of the MVC regular season schedule Wednesday, Jan. 27 with a 6 p.m. game at I-74 rival Illinois State.

Print Friendly Version

Players Mentioned

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

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

Players Mentioned

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

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

Women’s Basketball Returns Home To Host Loyola

Players Mentioned

#3 Gabi Haack

#11 Lasha Petree

Players Mentioned

#3 Gabi Haack

#11 Lasha Petree