Bradley Women Host In-State Rival Southern Illinois Friday

The Braves will host the top three teams in the current MVC standings in their last three home games, beginning Friday night

Josh Schwam

Women's Basketball 2/16/2022 3:32:00 PM

Game 23 \| Southern Illinois Salukis (15-7, 10-2 MVC) at Bradley Braves (4-18, 1-12 MVC)
Date	Friday, Feb. 18, 2022
Time	6:30 p.m. CT
Location	Peoria, IL
Venue (Capacity)	Renaissance Coliseum (4,200)
Social Media	Twitter: @B radleyWBB \| Instagram: @bradley_wbb

Bradley will have the opportunity to try and play spoiler during the final three weeks of the Missouri Valley Conference regular season as four of its final five games come against the top four teams in the current MVC standings. The Braves will start the closing stretch by hosting a Southern Illinois team that enters Friday's matchup one-half game behind Illinois State in The Valley standings.

BY THE NUMBERS
1 - Freshman guard Caroline Waite enters Friday's game as the top-scoring underclassman (Fr/So) in the Valley at 13.1 ppg and the league leader in 3FGM/gm (2.79).
9 - Bradley senior guard Tatum Koenig has scored in double figures in nine straight games, the longest double-digit scoring streak of her career.
14 - Bradley has utilized 14 different starting lineups this season, all within a 16-game stretch, the most of any team in the nation this year.
96 - The Braves have used the same starting five (below) in each of the last 3 games and the quintet has combined for 96 percent of the scoring in those games.

SERIES NOTES
83rd Meeting - Southern Illinois leads, 53-29
• Friday's game will be the 83rd meeting in the all-time series against in-state Missouri Valley Conference rival Southern Illinois.
• The series dates to the 1983 Gateway Conference Tournament and an 81-52 win in the first round by the host Salukis.
• All 82 games in the series have been played as conference rivals.
• Although Southern Illinois owns a 22-17 series edge in Peoria, Bradley owns an 8-4 record against the Salukis at Renaissance Coliseum since the arena opened for the 2010-11 season.
• Bradley is looking to extend its 4-game home winning streak against the Salukis.

PREGAME CEREMONY
• Bradley will honor retiring Southern Illinois head coach Cindy Stein in a brief pregame ceremony Friday night.
• Stein is a Peoria native, who graduated from Richwoods High School and Illinois Central College, teaming with former Bradley head coach Paula Buscher at both schools.
• As Stein was working her way up the coaching ladder, she served as an assistant coach for Lisa Boyer at Bradley from 1988-93.
• Bradley head coach Andrea Gorski was a Hall of Fame point guard for the Braves during those first four seasons of Stein's time at Bradley and she served as associate head coach at Southern Illinois during Stein's first three years with the Salukis.
• In her 25th year as a collegiate head coach, Stein enters Friday's game with 512 career victories, including 130 in her nine seasons at the SIU helm.

EXPERIENCE FACTOR
• Fifth-year senior Gabi Haack, the all-time leading scorer and 3-point shooter in program history, saw her season come to an end Jan. 1 at Illinois State when she suffered a torn ACL in her left knee with 6:00 remaining.
• With Haack no longer available, senior guard Tatum Koenig stands as Bradley's most-experienced player and the team's active leader in most every career category.
• Bradley's 15-player active roster includes 12 first-year (9) and second-year (3) Braves.
• While Koenig has been the starting point guard in 93 of her 110 career games, the other 14 student-athletes on the active roster have combined for 85 starts in 362 individual games played (25.9 games per player) at BU.
• While Koenig has logged 3,324 career minutes, the other 14 active Braves have combined for 4,390 minutes at Bradley.
• Friday opponent Southern Illinois has 14 student-athletes who have combined for 734 individual games and more than 15,000 minutes played, including the duo of fifth-year players Abby Brockmeyer (AB) and Makenzie Silvey (MS), who alone have combined for more minutes (7,891) than the entire 15-player Bradley roster (7,714).
Team Roster Games Starts Minutes
Bradley 15 472 178 7,714
SIU 14 734 393 15,332
AB/MS 2 259 245 7,891

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 same combo in each of the last three games.
• The quintet of Tatum Koenig (65 points), Caroline Waite (55), Abbie Draper (30), Chloe Rice (22) and Sierra Morrow (21) have combined for 193 of the team's 202 points – 95.5 percent – the last three games.
Opponent Score Starters Bench Starters%
EVANSVILLE 77-67 74 3 (Danso) .961
at Valparaiso 84-86 80 4 (Danso) .952
at Loyola Chicago 41-56 39 2 (Fitch) .951
Last 3 Games 202 193 9 (2 players) .955

FLIP OF THE CALENDAR, FLIP OF THE SWITCH
• Since the calendar flipped to 2022, Bradley senior point guard Tatum Koenig has turned into a scoring machine for the Braves.
• The transition was largely necessitated by Gabi Haack's season-ending knee injury suffered Jan. 1 with six minutes remaining at Illinois State, but Koenig's offensive surge started with 12 points that day at Redbird Arena.
• Koenig had averaged 6.7 points per game with 19 double-digit scoring efforts in her first 97 career games.
• In the 13 games since the calendar flipped to 2022, however, Koenig has scored in double figures 12 times and is the league's fourth-leading scorer at 15.9 ppg.
• Heading into the Jan. 1 game at Illinois State, Koenig ranked 39th among The Valley's 2021-22 scoring leaders at 7.0 points per game.
• Now 13 games later, heading into Friday's game versus Southern Illinois, Koenig has climbed 26 spots on the league's scoring list to rank 13th at 12.3 ppg.
MVC Scoring Leaders Dec. 31 PPG Feb. 16 PPG
Tatum Koenig 39th 7.0 13th 12.3

FRESHMAN SCORING RECORDS
• With fifth-year senior Gabi Haack no longer available due to her season-ending knee injury, freshman guard Caroline Waite assumes the title of team scoring leader.
• Currently averaging 13.1 points per game, Waite's norm through her 19 games represents the fourth-best scoring average ever by a Bradley freshman.
• The top scoring underclassman (Fr/So) in The Valley, Waite is the league's ninth-leading scorer overall.
• No other underclassman ranks among the top 24 top scorers in The Valley.
• Loyola Chicago sophomore Maya Chandler is 25th at 10.5 pg and Drake's Katie Dinnebier is the second-leading freshman scorer, ranking 28th overall at 8.8 ppg.
• Ironically, Haack (10.5 ppg in 2017-18) was the last freshman to lead the Braves in scoring.
BRADLEY FRESHMAN SCORING AVERAGES
Pl. PPG Freshmen Season
1. 18.3 Connie Griffith 1977-89
2. 18.1 Judy Burns 1981-82
3. 13.2 Lasha Petree 2018-19
4. 13.1 CAROLINE WAITE 2021-22
5. 12.8 Kathy Stokes 1977-78
6. 12.6 Heather Best 1995-96
7. 12.3 Karen Anderson 1979-80
8. 12.0 Karin Nichols 1986-87

BRADLEY FRESHMAN TEAM SCORING LEADERS
Season Student-Athlete PPG
2021-22 Caroline Waite 13.1
2017-18 Gabi Haack 10.5
2009-10 Katie Yohn 10.2
1977-78 Connie Griffith 18.3
1975-76 Lynn Held 12.4

FRESHMAN SHOOTER
• Bradley's Caroline Waite leads The Valley and ranks 18th nationally by averaging 2.79 3FGM/Game.
• Waite ranks second among all freshmen nationally in 3-point field goals per game (Duquesne's Tess Myers is first at 3.12 3FGM/gm).
• Waite is on pace for 69 treys through Bradley's first game in the MVC Tournament, which would tie for sixth on Bradley's single-season top 10.
• Michelle Nason set Bradley's single-season record with 87 treys during the 1994-95 campaign.
• Waite's 53 triples already rank as the fifth-most ever by a Bradley freshman, but she has fallen off the freshman record pace set by Michelle Lund with 75 triples in 2008-09.
70 3-POINT FIELD GOALS IN A SEASON
87 Michelle Nason Sr. 1994-95
78 Erika Nelson Sr. 2006-07
77 Gabi Haack Sr. 2020-21
75 Michelle Lund Fr. 2008-09
71 Michelle Nason Jr. 1993-94
53 Caroline Waite Fr. 2021-22 69 pace

3FGM BY BRADLEY FRESHMEN
75 Michelle Lund 2008-09
68 Gabi Haack 2017-18
57 Katie Yohn 2009-10
56 Lasha Petree 2018-19
53 Caroline Waite 2021-22

LOOKING AHEAD
• Bradley will complete this weekend's home stand by hosting Missouri State in a 2 p.m. tip Sunday at Renaissance Coliseum.
• Sunday's game will serve as the annual Play4Kay game and the Braves are asking fans to consider participating in the Play4Kay Free Throw Challenge by making a pledge for each free throw made by the Braves during the month of February (currently 71): https://pledgeit.org/bradley-play4kay-2022.

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