Braves Host Missouri State in Play4Kay Game

The Braves will renew the longtime conference rivalry Sunday afternoon at Renaissance Coliseum

Josh Schwam

Women's Basketball 2/19/2022 12:20:00 PM

Game 24 \| Missouri State Bears (19-5, 10-3 MVC) at Bradley Braves (4-19, 1-13 MVC)
Date	Sunday, Feb. 20, 2022
Time	2:00 p.m. CT
Location	Peoria, IL
Venue (Capacity)	Renaissance Coliseum (4,200)
Social Media	Twitter: @B radleyWBB \| Instagram: @bradley_wbb

Bradley will host Missouri Valley Conference rival Missouri State Sunday afternoon in its annual Play4Kay Game. The Braves are participating
in the annual Play4Kay Free Throw Challenge, helping to raise funds for breast cancer research by soliciting pledges for each of their free throws made during the month of February. Fans may join the Challenge by visiting pledgeit.org/bradley-play4kay-2022.

BY THE NUMBERS
1 - Freshman guard Caroline Waite enters Sunday's game as the top-scoring underclassman (Fr/So) in the Valley at 12.6 ppg and the league leader in 3FGM/gm (2.7).
10 - Bradley senior guard Tatum Koenig has scored in double figures in 10 consecutive games, the longest double-digit scoring streak of her career.
15 - Bradley has utilized 15 different starting lineups this season, all within a 20-game stretch, the most of any team in the nation this year.
56 - Nine different Bradley student-athletes have combined to miss 56 individual games this season due to a variety of illnesses and injuries.

RECAPPING FRIDAY'S ACTION
• Senior guard Tatum Koenig (13) scored in double figures for the 10th consecutive game and junior forward Sierra Morrow was 5-for-5 from the field in an 11-point effort, but Southern Illinois' veterans led the Salukis to a 74-46 win Friday night at Renaissance Coliseum.
• SIU's trio of graduate players – Gabby Walker (19), Abby Brockmeyer (14) and Makenzie Silvey (10) – combined for 43 points.
• Morrow scored the game's first points on a putback basket, but SIU answered with a 7-2 surge and never trailed the rest of the game.
• While Southern Illinois shot 53.7 percent (29-54) from the field, including 5-for-11 (.455) from 3-point range, Bradley was just 19-for-56 (.339) from the field and 2-for-24 (.083) from 3-point range.

SERIES NOTES
87th Meeting • Missouri State leads 61-25 overall • Missouri State leads 23-14 at Bradley
• Sunday's game will be the 87th meeting in the all-time series between the longtime conference rivals.
• All 86 games in the series to date have been played as league rivals in both the Gateway and Missouri Valley Conferences.
• The teams split their first series in 1984 with Bradley capturing an 88-76 victory Feb. 9, 1984 at Robertson Memorial Fieldhouse to earn the season split.
• Missouri State has won 10 straight in the series, since the Braves swept the 2017 series.
• Missouri State has won three straight at Bradley and the Bears now own an 8-2 record at Renaissance Coliseum, which opened for the 2010-11 season.

FEBRUARY IN PEORIA
• Sunday's game will be the first February meeting between Bradley and Missouri State in Peoria since 2017 and just the second February matchup in Peoria since 2007.
• Bradley has won its last three February home games against Missouri State:
    Feb. 17, 2017 – at Bradley 62, Missouri State 56
    Feb. 15, 2007 – at Bradley 78, Missouri State 75
    Feb. 26, 2006 – at Bradley 70, Missouri State 63

PREGAME CEREMONY
• Sophomore forward Tete Danso will receive her Nursing program "white coat" during a pregame ceremony Sunday.
• The program's annual "White Coat" ceremony was conducted during Bradley's road trip to the Chicagoland last week, prompting Sunday's special ceremony.
• Sporting a 3.83 cumulative GPA, Danso qualified for the 2021 MVC Honor Roll, as well as the Bradley Athletic Director's Honor Roll during the Fall 2020 and Spring 2021 semesters.

LINEUP CHANGES
• Bradley has used 15 different starting lineups this season, rolling out its newest combination Friday night.
• Bradley's 15 different starting combos are the most of any team in the nation this season.

FLIP THE CALENDAR, FLIP THE SWITCH
• Since the calendar flipped to 2022, Bradley senior 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 with six minutes remaining in the Jan. 1 game at Illinois State, but Koenig's offensive surge started with 12 points that date 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 14 games since the calendar flipped to 2022, however, Koenig has scored in double-digits 13 times, including her current, career-best streak of 10 consecutive double-digit efforts.
• 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 14 games later, Koenig has climbed 26 spots on the league's scoring list to 13th at 12.3 ppg and she is fourth in conference games by averaging 15.7 ppg against the league.

SIX-IN-FOUR
• Bradley has not had more than six student-athletes score in any of its last four games.
Feb. 6 vs. Evansville, W, 77-67: Koenig (23), Waite (22), Draper (14), Morrow (12), Rice (3) | Danso (3)
Feb. 10 at Valparaiso, L, 84-86: Koenig (27), Waite (20), Draper (10), Morrow (9), Rice (14) | Danso (4)
Feb. 12 at Loyola Chicago, L, 41-56: Koenig (15), Waite (13), Draper (6), Morrow (0), Rice (5) | Fitch (2)
Feb. 18 vs. SIU, L, 46-74: Koenig (13), Waite (4), Draper (7), Morrow (11), Danso (0) | Rice (8), Interrante (3)
• The quintet of Tatum Koenig (78), Caroline Waite (62), Abbie Draper (37), Sierra Morrow (32) and Chloe Rice (30) have combined to score 239 of Bradley's 248 points (96.4 percent) in the last four games.

AND THEN THERE WERE TWO
• Now 23 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 Feb. 10 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.

FRESHMAN SCORING
• Bradley freshman guard Caroline Waite enters Sunday's game leading the Braves and all Missouri Valley Conference underclassmen (freshmen and sophomores) in scoring at 12.6 points per game.
• Leading the team with five games of 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 10th among all Valley players, Waite is the only underclassman (freshmen and sophomores) to rank among the league's top 23 scorers (Loyola Chicago sophomore Maya Chandler is tied for 24th at 10.3 ppg).

THREE-POINT SHOOTING
• Freshman guard Caroline Waite leads all MVC student-athletes and ranks second among the nation's freshmen by averaging 2.7 3-point field goals per game.
• Already fifth all-time on the Bradley freshman list for 3FGM in a season with 53 triples, Waite is attempting to become the fifth student-athlete in program history to make as many as 70 3-point field goals in a season.
• ingle-season record holder Michelle Nason drained 87 treys in 1994-95 and 71 in 1993-94.

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 Sunday's game versus Missouri State as Bradley's active leader in most every statistical category having logged 3,362 career minutes in 111 career games (94 starts).
• The other 14 active student-athletes on the Bradley roster have combined for 89 starts in 373 individual games played (26.6 games per player) and 4,552 career minutes (325.1 minutes per player).
• The collective 484 games played, 183 starts and 7,914 minutes totaled by Bradley's 15 active student-athletes are the fewest among the league's 10 teams.
• Even without Hipp and Jasmine Franklin, Missouri State has 11 active student-athletes who have totaled 545 career individual games and 11,727 career minutes played just at Missouri State.
Team Roster Career GP Starts Minutes
Bradley 15 484 183 7,914
Missouri State 11 545 292 11,727
Including White at CSU 11 651 373 14,642

LOOKING AHEAD
• Bradley will play two of its final three games on the road: next Friday at UNI and Sunday at Drake, before closing the regular season at home March 6 against I-74 rival Illinois State.

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