Women’s Basketball Returns Home To Host Southern Illinois

Duane Zehr

Women's Basketball 1/6/2021 2:00:00 PM

PEORIA, Ill. -- After splitting a pair of games at Drake to open the Missouri Valley Conference portion of the schedule, Bradley Women's Basketball returns to Renaissance Coliseum to host Southern Illinois in a two-game series Friday and Saturday.

The Braves (5-4 overall, 1-1 MVC) are coming off an 80-75 win at Drake, which was the team's first road win in the series with the Bulldogs since 2010. Winners of five of its last six games, Southern Illinois (5-2 overall, 2-0 MVC) swept a home series against Evansville last weekend; but the Salukis have played just one road game on the year (at Missouri Dec. 20).

Friday's 6 p.m. game along with Saturday's 4 p.m. contest will both be available on ESPN+. BradleyBraves.com will provide links to live stats and the WIRL 1290 AM radio broadcast for both weekend outings.

The teams have split the season series each of the last two years with the home squad claiming all four matchups over that span. SIU owns a 52-27 lead in the all-time series, which includes a 22-15 edge in games played in Peoria. The Braves are 9-4 at home in the last 13 meetings in Peoria and 13-6 at home over the last 19 years. The last three meetings in Peoria have been decided by five points or fewer and neither team has reached the 70-point mark in the last nine matchups.

Bradley snapped an eight-game losing streak in MVC home openers with last year's 82-51 victory over Evansville at Renaissance Coliseum to start the 2019-20 league slate. Overall, the Braves are 13-24 in conference home openers. Southern Illinois is the most common opponent in MVC home openers for Bradley (ninth such meeting) with Drake (six times) the only other league foe with more than five visits in the Valley home opener for the Braves. The last time Bradley faced SIU in its MVC home opener was 2017-18 and the lone victory for the Braves in the eight previous times the Salukis were the first home conference game of the year was 2008-09.

Bradley is 14-1 in its last 15 Missouri Valley Conference home games, with the lone loss during that stretch a three-point setback to #17/21 Missouri State to wrap up the 2019-20 home schedule. The current 14-1 stretch started with an overtime victory over Southern Illinois on Jan. 20, 2019. Over the last two years, the Braves have combined to go 14-4 at Renaissance Coliseum in league action with two of the last three losses by three points (an overtime loss to UNI in 2019-20). Missouri State is the only Valley team to win at Renaissance Coliseum each of the last two seasons.

Bradley's victory at Drake to close out the opening weekend of MVC play was the first win for the Braves at the Knapp Center since a 61-58 victory on Jan. 24, 2010. In fact, Bradley snapped a 23-game losing streak in the state of Iowa dating back to that contest. West Branch, Iowa, native Tatum Koenig has averaged 12.5 points per game in her last six contests against teams from the state of Iowa, while shooting a blistering 63 percent (17-for-27) from three-point range from beyond the three-point arc in those matchups. Koenig leads the MVC in assist-to-turnover ratio at 3.00.

Averaging a league-best 12.2 turnovers per game, Bradley has committed just 10.5 turnovers per contest since senior Emily Marsh has returned to the starting lineup (last four games). The three lowest season averages for turnovers per game in program history have been notched in the last three seasons with the 2017-18 squad committing a school-record low 14.29 turnovers per tilt. The MVC has not had a team average fewer than 13 turnovers per game since Missouri State in 2017-18. The Braves are 17th nationally in turnovers per game (12.2) through games of Jan. 5 and 13th among teams that have played at least five games.

Junior Lasha Petree continues to fill it up for the Braves, pacing Bradley in scoring in both games of the MVC-opening series at Drake. Petree, who has been the team's top scorer in seven of nine contests and each of the last three outings, tallied a game-high 28 points to help highlight Saturday's victory at Drake. She is averaging a league best 21.0 points per game (27^th nationally), while also leading the Valley in blocks per outing at 2.0 per contest. Climbing four spots on Bradley's all-time scoring list into 15th over the weekend, Petree is looking to become just the fourth Brave to average better than 20 points per game in a season. In addition, she is trying to join Illinois State's Caryn Brune (1992-93) as the only players in Valley history to lead the conference in both scoring and blocks in the same season. Through games of Jan. 5, Petree is the lone player in the nation to have at least 20 blocked shots and 10 or more made three-pointers (18). The 2019-20 MVC All-Defensive team selection is also second in the MVC with 17 steals.

Bradley follows up the weekend home series against Southern Illinois with a two-game series at Evansville Jan. 15 & 16.

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Players Mentioned

#13 Tatum Koenig: G; 5' 7"; Junior

#30 Emily Marsh: F; 6' 0"; Senior

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

Players Mentioned

#13 Tatum Koenig
: 5' 7"; Junior
: G

#30 Emily Marsh
: 6' 0"; Senior
: F

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

Women’s Basketball Returns Home To Host Southern Illinois

Players Mentioned

#13 Tatum Koenig

#30 Emily Marsh

#11 Lasha Petree

Players Mentioned

#13 Tatum Koenig

#30 Emily Marsh

#11 Lasha Petree