Braves Host Indiana State To Close Regular Season

Women's Basketball 3/4/2021 11:32:00 AM

PEORIA, Ill. -- Bradley Women's Basketball wraps up the 2020-21 regular-season schedule with a two-game home series against Indiana State Friday and Saturday at Renaissance Coliseum as the Braves battle for positioning in the final Missouri Valley Conference regular-season standings.

Tied with Valparaiso and Loyola for fifth in the Valley standings, Bradley (12-11 overall, 8-8 MVC) opens the series against the ninth-place Sycamores (5-12 overall, 2-10 overall) with a 6 p.m. contest Friday and the squads wrap up the set Saturday with a 4 p.m. game.

Both games will be available on ESPN3 and BradleyBraves.com will provide links to live stats along with the WIRL 1290 AM radio broadcast.

The Braves have won the last four meetings with the Sycamores for BU's longest win streak in the all-time series which dates back to a neutral site meeting in 1976-77. Indiana State owns a 50-29 overall edge in the series, however, with the teams splitting 38 matchups played in Peoria (19-19). Bradley has won the last two meetings at Renaissance Coliseum and three of the last four home contests in the series.

Bradley will close out the regular season at home for the first time since 2017-18 and will be finishing the regular-season schedule at Renaissance Coliseum for just the third time in the last seven seasons. The Braves are 5-3 when closing out the regular-season schedule at home since 2007-08 and 6-4 the last 10 times (since 2003-04) they played the final game before the Valley tournament in Peoria.

With a multitude of scenarios remaining for the final two days of the regular season, Bradley's seeding for next week's MVC Tournament is still up in the air with the Braves entering the weekend tied with Valparaiso (7-7) and Loyola (8-8) for fifth in the standings. Bradley can finish as high as a tie for third in the final standings, but can earn no better than the #4 seed and can finish as low as alone in seventh in the final standings depending on this weekend's outcomes.

Saturday's contest against Indiana State will mark the final home game of the 2020-21 season with seniors Gabi Haack, Emily Marsh, Uche Ufochukwu and Nyjah White recognized prior to the game. Bradley is 7-4 on Senior Day over the last 11 seasons after a tightly contested 69-66 setback to #17/21 Missouri State to close out the home slate last year. Indiana State has been the most common opponent for BU's Senior Day with Saturday's matchup marking the 10th time the Braves have played the Sycamores in the final home game of the year. I-74 rival Illinois State is the only other team to take part in Bradley's Senior Day more than five times with the Redbirds visiting seven times.

Haack and junior Lasha Petree continue to fill it up for the Braves with the pair combining for 34.1 points per game or roughly 49 percent of Bradley's scoring. Averaging a league-best 17.7 points per game, Petree is trying to become the first player not from Drake to lead the league in scoring since UNI's Jacqui Kalin in 2012-13 and join Shelli Braud (1987-88) as the only Bradley players to pace the Valley in scoring. Haack is second in the MVC in scoring in league games at 16.5 points per outing and became the first player in league history to hit 60 or more three-pointers in four different seasons last week. Since Bradley joined the MVC in 1983-84 the Braves have had only one other duo both average better than 15.0 points per game in the same season with Carrie Coffman (17.6 ppg) and Michelle Nason (16.6 ppg) doing so in 1994-95.

Petree's only career outing in which she failed to score a single point came in her first career game against Indiana State, but the MVC's leading scorer torched the Sycamores for 30.0 points per game last year and has averaged 26.0 points per game in the last three meetings. In fact, she was 20-for-33 (60.6 percent) from the field and 8-of-14 (57.1 percent) from beyond the arc in last season's matchups with Indiana State, and is 25-of 43 (58.1 percent) shooting and 12-for-20 (60 percent) from three-point range in her last three outings in the series. Her two previous home games against Indiana State might be her most memorable performances as she scored a career-best 36 points last year at Renaissance Coliseum on 13-of-19 shooting. During her freshman season, Petree sparked a late comeback by collecting 13 points and three steals in a 46-second span as the Braves rallied from 17 down with five minutes to go for an 81-80 victory.

Bradley will head to Moline, Ill., next week for the 2021 MVC Championship, which will be held at the TaxSlayer Center March 11-14.

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