Valley Second Half Starts Friday

Bradley Women's Basketball will start the second half of the MVC schedule by hosting Indiana State Friday

Josh Schwam

Women's Basketball 2/3/2022 9:58:00 AM

Game 19 \| Indiana State Sycamores (9-9, 4-3 MVC) at Bradley Braves (3-15, 0-9 MVC)
Date	Friday, Feb. 4, 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 tip off the second half of the Missouri Valley Conference season and the back half of its season-long, 4-game home stand Friday night when the Braves host Indiana State at Renaissance Coliseum. The Braves will be trying to split the regular-season series against the Sycamores, who earned a 73-57 win against Bradley Jan. 9 in Terre Haute.

BY THE NUMBERS
1 – Freshman guard Caroline Waite enters Friday's game as the top-scoring underclassman (Fr/So) in the Valley at 11.3 ppg.

5 – Bradley senior guard Tatum Koenig has scored in double figures in five consecutive games for the first time in her career.

12 – Bradley has utilized 12 different starting lineups this season, all in the last 14 games, the most starting lineups of any team in the nation this season.

30 – Koenig enters Friday's game having played 3,179 career minutes, 30 shy of tying her head coach, Andrea Gorski (3,209 minutes from 1988-92), for 10th on the program's all-time list for career minutes played.

SERIES HISTORY
83rd Meeting | Indiana State leads, 51-31
• Friday's matchup will be the 83rd all-time meeting between the Bradley and Indiana State women's basketball programs in a series that dates back to a neutral-site meeting Feb. 12, 1977 in Danville, IL.
• That 1977 meeting was Bradley's second game of the day: the Braves lost both games that day, 72-38 to Danville College and 59-55 to the Sycamores.
• Bradley had won team-best six consecutive games against Indiana State until the streak was snapped in this season's first meeting in Terre Haute, a 73-57 Sycamores win at Hulman Center.
• Bradley has built a 21-19 advantage in home games against Indiana State by winning four straight at Renaissance Coliseum against the Sycamores.
• Bradley's series-best 5-game home win streak against Indiana State spanned three different venues - Robertson Fieldhouse (2008), Lorene Ramsey Gym at Illinois Central College (2009 & 2010) and Renaissance Coliseum (2011 and 2012).
• With wins in five of the last six meetings in Peoria, Bradley owns a 7-5 record against Indiana State at Renaissance Coliseum since the venue opened for the 2010-11 season.
• In her sixth year as Bradley head coach, Andrea Gorski is 7-4 against Indiana State, while first-year Sycamores head coach Chad Killinger is 1-0 against the Braves.

SERIES NEWBIES
•  With nine first-year student-athletes on the roster and fifth-year senior Gabi Haack on the injury shelf, Bradley's lineup includes just six players who have ever appeared in more than just this season's previous meeting against Indiana State.
• Senior guard Tatum Koenig has played in seven games against the Indiana State, scoring 56 points (8.0 ppg) in 225 cumulative minutes.
• The other 14 Bradley student-athletes available Friday night have combined for 21 individual games against Indiana State, totaling 70 points in 254 cumulative minutes -- With Koenig: 28 individual games, 479 minutes, 126 points.
• On the other side, Indiana State's roster includes 11 student-athletes who have played a combined 28 individual games against Bradley, accumulating 181 points in 589 minutes.

DEFENDING THE HOME COURT
•  Since the start of the 2018-19 season, Bradley is 36-15 (.706) in its last 51 home games at Renaissance Coliseum.
• The program record for the most home wins in a 4-year stretch has stood since 1983 after the Braves posted a 38-14 (.731) record at Robertson Memorial Fieldhouse from 1979-83.
• Prior to the start of the 2018-19 season, Bradley had gone five consecutive seasons without a winning home record and the Braves had not posted a double-digit home wins total since 2008-09 (12-2).

ROSTER FLUX
•  While all 16 Braves have seen action this season, only three Braves have appeared in all 18 games.
• Senior guard Tatum Koenig is the only Brave to start all 18 games, while sophomores Daija Powell and Tete Danso are the only other Braves to play in all 18 games.
• The dip to just three players to appear in every game occurred when Gabi Haack's program-record streak of 129 consecutive games played ended Jan. 7 at Evansville.
• The three players to appear in every game already are the fewest in a season since 2016-17, when just three student-athletes played in all 31 games.
• Through the season's first 18 games, eight different Braves have combined to miss 40 individual games due to a variety of illnesses and injuries.

WITHOUT GABI
• Senior point guard Tatum Koenig has made the team's most significant scoring jump in Gabi Haack's absence.
• Koenig had averaged 6.8 points per game with 20 double-digit scoring efforts in her first 98 career games.
• In the eight games since Haack's injury, Koenig has averaged 13.9 ppg with seven double-digit efforts.
• Koenig has scored in double figures in five consecutive games for the first time in her career (her longest double-digit scoring streak had been three games Jan. 1-9, 2022).

LINEUP ROTATION
• Bradley has used 12 different starting lineups this season, the most of any team in the nation to date.
• The Braves used the same lineup for the season's first five games, but Caroline Waite's non-COVID illness that prevented her from making the trip to the Dakotas ignited a stretch that has seen the Braves roll out a different starting five in 12 of the last 14 games.

LOOKING AHEAD
• Bradley will close out its season-long, 4-game home stand Sunday by hosting Missouri Valley Conference rival Evansville for a 2 p.m. tip at Renaissance Coliseum.
• The Braves had won nine consecutive games against Evansville until the Purple Aces squeaked out a 74-73 win Jan. 7 at Meeks Family Fieldhouse in the first game after Gabi Haack's season-ending knee injury.
• Bradley has won six consecutive home games against Evansville and the Braves are 9-1 all-time at Renaissance Coliseum against the Purple Aces.
• Following Sunday's game, Bradley will play four of its next six contests on the road, beginning Thursday (6 p.m.) at Valparaiso.

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