Squad 47 Opens 2021-22 Season Tuesday

Bradley Women's Basketball will celebrate its 2021 MVC Championship pregame before taking on fellow NCAA Tourney participant Wright State Tuesday at Renaissance Coliseum

Missouri Valley Conference

Women's Basketball 11/7/2021 12:20:00 PM

Game 1 \| Wright State (0-0) at Bradley (0-0)
Date	Tuesday, Nov. 9, 2021
Time	6:30 p.m. CT
Location	Peoria, IL
Venue (Capacity)	Renaissance Coliseum (4,200)
Social Media	Twitter: @B radleyWBB \| Instagram: @bradley_wbb

The 47th season of Bradley Women's Basketball will tip off Tuesday night with a matchup of two 2021 NCAA Tournament teams. The Braves will celebrate their first MVC Tournament title and NCAA Tournament appearance with a pregame ring presentation and banner unveil ceremony before facing a Wright State squad that won its 2021 NCAA first-round game against Arkansas.

BY THE NUMBERS
2 Fifth-year senior guard Gabi Haack is within range of Bradley career records for free throws made and points.
6 Head coach Andrea Gorski is beginning her sixth year as Bradley head coach. A Hall-of-Fame player for the Braves from 1988-92, Gorski already ranks third in program history with 84 wins.
8 The defending MVC Tournament champion, Bradley welcomes eight newcomers to the roster as the Braves look to defend their title.
47 Tuesday's game opens the 47th season of Bradley Women's Basketball, which was first sponsored by the Department of Intercollegiate Athletics in 1975-76.

SQUAD 47
• The 2021-22 season marks the 47th year of Bradley Women's Basketball.
• Bradley Athletics officially began its sponsorship of women's basketball as an intercollegiate team for the 1975-76 season.
• The Braves competed in the old AIAW until transitioning to the NCAA in 1982, making this season Bradley's 40th as a NCAA Division I program.

PROGRAM FIRST
• Tuesday's season-opener represents the first-ever game in Bradley Women's Basketball history between teams that participated in the previous year's NCAA Tournament.
• The Braves earned their first-ever trip to the NCAA Tourney by winning their first MVC Tournament championship last season.
• Wright State made its third NCAA Tournament appearance in 2021 after winning the Horizon League postseason title.
• While the Braves suffered a first-round NCAA Tourney loss to Texas, Wright State upset No. 4 seed Arkansas, 66-62, before falling to Bradley's MVC rival, fifth-seeded Missouri State, 64-39, in the second round.
• Tuesday's game also will mark the Wright State debut for head coach Kari Hoffman, who led Cedarville University to 106 wins and three regular-season conference championships the previous five years.

SERIES HISTORY
Bradley leads, 2-1 • First meeting in Peoria
• The Braves and Raiders will meet for the fourth time in a series that dates back to Bradley's 64-50 victory Dec. 16, 1989 at Wright State.
• Bradley is 2-1 in the series, which will be contested outside of Dayton for the first time.
• The Braves earned a 66-61 victory Dec. 2, 2020 at Wright State.
• Sixth-year Bradley head coach Andrea Gorski is 2-0 against Wright State, helping the Braves to that 1989 victory as a student-athlete and last year's win as head coach.
• Gorski contributed 10 points, three assists and four steals in that 1989 win, which was played before 112 peope in the WSU P.E. Building.

5-YEAR UPSWING
• The first five years of Andrea Gorski's head coaching tenure have seen the Bradley program continue a steady and impressive rise.
• From 2015-20, Bradley became the first program in Missouri Valley Conference Women's Basketball history to improve its win total in five consecutive seasons, capped by a program-record 22 wins in 2019-20 in Gorski's fourth year at the helm.
• Despite the uncertainties created by the pandemic, the program achievements continued in 2020-21 with Bradley's first-ever MVC Tournament championship and NCAA Tournament appearance last spring.
• Having equaled the program record for victories (72) in a 4-year span from 2017-21, Bradley needs 14 wins in 2021-22 to set the program mark for the most victories in a 5-year span in program history (85, 2008-13).

VALLEY FOUR-PACK
• Head coach Andrea Gorski has played a major role in the best four years of conference play in Bradley history.
• As a Bradley Hall of Fame point guard from 1988-92, Gorski helped the Braves to a 38-34 conference record in the final four seasons of the Gateway Conference.
• Since the start of the 2017-18 season, Gorski has coached the Braves to a program-record 39 conference wins in a four-year span.
• Seven Valley wins in 2021-22 are needed to give the Braves 40 conference wins in a 4-year stretch for the first time in program history.

SCHOOL RECORDS ON TAP
• Averaging 13.8 points per game through her first four seasons, fifth-year senior guard Gabi Haack already is the second-leading scorer in Bradley history with 1,640 career points, just 39 behind Karen Anderson's 1,679 points from 1979-83.
• Anderson's total represents the longest-standing school scoring record among The Valley's 10 active programs (Lorri Bauman's 3,115 points from 1980-84 remain Drake's career scoring record).
• Already the school-record holder with 283 career 3-pointers, Haack also is second in Bradley history with 347 career free throws made, just one shy of Raisa Taylor's record 348 charity makes from 2007-11.
• And already the school-record holder with 3,808 minutes on the floor, Haack is second with 109 games started (all consecutively) and tied for fourth with 119 career games played

AND A VALLEY RECORD, TOO
• Haack also ranks second in MVC history with 283 career 3-pointers.
• Creighton's Dayna Finch set The Valley mark with 294 triples from 2001-04.

LOOKING AHEAD
• Bradley will continue its 3-game, season-opening home stand Monday, Nov. 15 by hosting Upper Iowa in a 6:30 p.m. non-conference clash at Renaissance Coliseum.
• Upper Iowa is led by sophomore guard Lydia Haack, younger sister of Bradley fifth-year senior guard Gabi Haack.
• The home stand will conclude Friday, Nov. 19 (6:30 p.m.) when the Braves host Big Ten Conference member Wisconsin at Renaissance Coliseum.

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Players Mentioned

#3 Gabi Haack: G; 5' 9"; Fifth Year

Players Mentioned

#3 Gabi Haack
: 5' 9"; Fifth Year
: G

Squad 47 Opens 2021-22 Season Tuesday

Bradley Women's Basketball will celebrate its 2021 MVC Championship pregame before taking on fellow NCAA Tourney participant Wright State Tuesday at Renaissance Coliseum

Players Mentioned

#3 Gabi Haack

Players Mentioned

#3 Gabi Haack