Final Valley Visit to Loyola Chicago Saturday

Bradley Women's Basketball will visit departing MVC member Loyola Chicago Saturday afternoon

Josh Schwam

Women's Basketball 2/11/2022 10:32:00 AM

Game 22 \| Bradley Braves (4-17, 1-11 MVC) at Loyola Chicago Ramblers (12-10, 4-7 MVC)
Date	Saturday, Feb. 12, 2022
Time	1:00 p.m. CT
Location	Chicago, IL
Venue (Capacity)	Gentile Arena (4,963)
Social Media	Twitter: @B radleyWBB \| Instagram: @bradley_wbb

Bradley will play its final regular-season Missouri Valley Conference game against Loyola Chicago Saturday afternoon when the Braves visit Gentile Arena. The Braves are shooting for a season series split as they attempt to earn their fifth consecutive road win against the Ramblers.

BRADLEY LAST-GAME STARTERS
Feb. 10 at Valparaiso | L, 86-84
G – 0 Chloe Rice • Sr. • 5'10" • Marion, IA | 4.8 ppg • 2.7 rpg • 1.9 apg
G – 11 Caroline Waite • Fr. • 5'4" • Ames, IA | 13.1 ppg • 1.8 rpg • 1.7 apg
G – 13 Tatum Koenig • Sr. • 5'7" • West Branch, IA | 12.1 ppg • 3.2 rpg • 3.6 apg
F – 2 Sierra Morrow • Jr. • 6'1" • Minneapolis, MN | 6.3 ppg • 5.4 rpg • 1.6 bpg
F – 22 Abbie Draper • Fr. • 6'2" • Waverly, IA | 5.1 ppg • 3.7 rpg • 1.0 apg
Head Coach: Andrea Gorski (11th season overall, 194-142 | 6th season at Bradley, 88-83)

RECAPPING THURSDAY'S ACTION
• Senior guards Tatum Koenig (27) and Chloe Rice (14) each put up career-best scoring numbers, but the Braves were unable to keep the momentum going from a hot-shooting first quarter, falling at Valparaiso Thursday night, 86-84.
• Trailing 80-78 with 53 seconds remaining, Koenig appeared to make a game-tying "and-1" layup, but her basket was waved off by a charge call.
• The Braves then appeared to make a defensive stop on the ensuing Valparaiso possession, but freshman forward Abbie Draper was called for a foul as Caroline Waite was securing a defensive rebound.
• Grace White made the resulting free throws for an 82-78 Valpo lead and the Beacons sank four more free throws in the final 17 seconds to hold on for the win.
• Bradley's starting five (shown above) combined for 80 of the team's 84 points, while reserve forward Tete Danso added the other four points and grabbed a game-high nine rebounds in her 19 minutes.
• Bradley's 84 points matched its season-best scoring output from the 84-65 win against Wright State to open the season Nov. 9 at Renaissance Coliseum and were the most in a loss since a 100-96, double-overtime setback at Southern Illinois Jan. 2, 2014.

SERIES NOTES
48th Meeting • Bradley leads 29-18 overall • Bradley leads 11-9 at Loyola Chicago
• Bradley will visit Loyola Chicago for the final regular-season meeting as Missouri Valley Conference rivals Saturday afternoon.
• The Braves own a 29-18 lead in a series that dates back to Loyola's 70-63 win Nov. 30, 1979 in Chicago.
• During Loyola Chicago's nine seasons in The Valley, Bradley owns a 13-8 series advantage, including a 5-1 road record against the Ramblers.
• Sporting an 11-9 overall road record against Loyola Chicago, Bradley is seeking its fifth consecutive win at Gentile Arena.
• In her sixth season as Bradley head coach, Andrea Gorski is 10-3 against the Ramblers. Gorski also was 3-1 against then non-conference rival Loyola Chicago as a Bradley student-athlete from 1988-92.

RAISING KOENIG
• Saying senior point guard Tatum Koenig has stepped up her offensive game since the program's all-time leading scorer, Gabi Haack, suffered a season-ending knee injury Jan. 1 at Illinois State would be a remarkable understatement.
• With Haack in action in all of her first 98 career games, Koenig had averaged 6.8 points per game with 20 double-digit scoring efforts.
• Through the opening weekend of Valley action, Koenig ranked 38th among the league's top scorers this season by averaging 7.5 ppg in Haack's 10 games.
• In the 11 games since Haack's injury, Koenig has scored in double-figures 10 times, while averaging a team-best 16.4 ppg (and 4.4 apg).
• Currently riding a career-best, 8-game double-figure scoring streak, Koenig has climbed 25 spots to 13th among the league's top scorers this season at 12.1 ppg overall and she is tied for third in conference play by averaging 16.0 ppg in Valley action.

PLAYING THE PERCENTAGES
• Bradley's 14 different starting five combinations are the most for any team in the nation this season, but the Braves appear to have found a combination they like.
• The Braves had used 13 different combinations in their previous 15 games until going with the lineup listed at the top of this notes update Saturday against Evansville.
• Employing the same lineup in the last two games, the quintet of Tatum Koenig (50 points), Caroline Waite (42), Abbie Draper (24), Sierra Morrow (21) and Chloe Rice (17) have combined for 154 of the team's 161 points – 95.7 percent – the last two games.
• After combining for 74 points (.961) in Saturday's 77-67 win against Evansville, the starting quintet piled up 80 points (.952) points in Thursday's 86-84 loss at Valparaiso.
• Reserve forward Tete Danso collected the other seven points in the two games, scoring three points Saturday and four Thursday, meaning Bradley's 161 points the last two games all have come from just six players.

SPEAKING OF DANSO
• Sophomore forward Tete Danso averages just 12.3 minutes per game, but she uses her time to dominate in the paint.
• Danso has come off the bench to post game-high rebound numbers in each of the last two games, matching her career-high with 11 boards in 25 reserve minutes Saturday against Evansville and following with a game-high nine rebounds in 19 minutes Thursday at Valparaiso.
• Despite ranking 10th on the team in minutes played per game, Danso ranks third by pulling down 4.1 rebounds per game.
• During her 49-game career, Danso averages 13.5 rebounds per 40 minutes, as well as 2.0 blocked shots per 40 minutes.

AND THEN THERE WERE TWO
• Now 21 games into the season, senior guard Tatum Koenig and sophomore forward Tete Danso are the only two Braves to appear in every game.
• Sophomore forward Daija Powell had appeared in each of the first 20 games until registering a DNP Thursday at Valparaiso.
• Bradley has not had as few as two student-athletes appear in every game of a season since 2014-15, when Anneke Schlueter was the only student-athlete to appear in all 30 games.
• Bradley and Evansville are the only two Valley teams to have as few as two student-athletes appear in every game of this 2021-22 season.

GETTING TO THE LINE
• Senior guard Tatum Koenig has led Bradley's charge to the free throw line in the last two games.
• After making 16-of-17 free throw attempts Saturday against Evansville, Koenig followed with a 9-for-10 effort Thursday at Valparaiso.
• Since splitting her two free throw attempts in the Jan. 13 home loss to Loyola Chicago, Koenig has made 43-of-48 (.896) charity attempts in the last eight games.
• With Koenig alone going 31-for-33 (.939) in the last three games, Bradley has attempted more than 20 free throws in three consecutive games for the first time this season, while converting at a 77.4 percent rate (65-84): 20-for-29 (.690) vs. Indiana State, 25-for-29 (.862) vs. Evansville and 20-for-26 (.769) at Valparaiso.
• Prior to the 3-game surge, Bradley was averaging just 14.4 free throw attempts per game and hitting at a cool .639 clip.

FRESHMAN SCORING
• Bradley freshman guard Caroline Waite enters Saturday's game at Loyola Chicago leading the Braves in scoring at 13.1 points per game.
• Coming off her third consecutive game with at least 20 points, Waite is on pace to become just the fifth freshman in program history to lead Bradley in scoring for a season.
• Ironically, fifth-year senior Gabi Haack was the last of the previous four freshmen to lead the Braves in scoring by averaging a team-best 10.5 ppg in 2017-18.
• Currently eighth among all Valley players, Waite is the only underclassman (freshmen and sophomores) to rank among the league's top 24 scorers (Loyola Chicago sophomore Maya Chandler is 25th at 10.1 ppg).

THREE-POINT SHOOTING
• Freshman guard Caroline Waite leads all MVC student-athletes and ranks second among the nation's freshmen by averaging 2.9 3-point field goals per game.
• Waite is 14-for-30 (.467) from 3-point range during her current 3-game scoring outburst (21.7 ppg).
• Already fifth all-time on the Bradley freshman list for 3FGM in a season with 52 triples, Waite is on pace to drain 72 treys through the team's first game in the MVC Tournament, which would rank fifth-most overall in Braves history.
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• Senior guard Tatum Koenig ranks third in Bradley history by shooting 39.5 percent from 3-point range during her career and ninth with 129 career 3-point field goals.
• Koenig has made at least one 3-pointer in a career-best 12 consecutive games.

EXPERIENCE MATTERS
• With fifth-year senior Gabi Haack out of action since suffering her season-ending knee injury Jan. 1 at Illinois State, senior guard Tatum Koenig stands as Bradley's most-experienced player.
• Koenig enters Saturday's game at Loyola Chicago as Bradley's active leader in most every statistical category having logged 3,287 career minutes in 109 career games (92 starts).
• The other 14 active student-athletes on the Bradley roster have combined for 81 starts in 350 individual games played (25.0 games per player) and 4,227 career minutes (301.9 minutes per player).
• The collective 459 games played, 173 starts and 7,514 minutes totaled by Bradley's 15 active student-athletes are the fewest among the league's 10 teams.
Team Roster Career GP Starts Minutes
Bradley 15 459 173 7,514
Loyola Chicago 15 751 323 13,794

LOOKING AHEAD
• Bradley will close out the regular season by playing three of its final five games at home.
• Of course, the problem with that 5-game finish is the Braves will face the four teams at the top of the league standings and perennial league power Drake in the closing five games.
• Bradley will host Southern Illinois Friday (6:30 p.m.) at Renaissance Coliseum, followed by the Feb. 20 (2 p.m.) visit from Missouri State.
• After making the Iowa road swing to UNI Feb. 25 and Drake Feb. 27, Bradley will host I-74 rival Illinois State March 5 in the regular-season finale.

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