Bradley Women Start Chicagoland Trip at Valparaiso

Bradley Women's Basketball will visit Missouri Valley Conference rival Valparaiso Thursday night

Josh Schwam

Women's Basketball 2/9/2022 8:07:00 AM

Game 21 \| Bradley Braves (4-16, 1-10 MVC) at Valparaiso Beacons (7-15, 5-6 MVC)
Date	Thursday, Feb. 10, 2022
Time	6:00 p.m. CT
Location	Valparaiso, IN
Venue (Capacity)	Athletics-Recreation Center (5,000)
Social Media	Twitter: @B radleyWBB \| Instagram: @bradley_wbb

Bradley will play four of its six remaining February games on the road, beginning with Thursday night's visit to Missouri Valley Conference rival Valparaiso. Coming off Sunday's 77-67 win against Evansville, the Braves will be shooting for their second straight win as they look to avenge a 68-61 home loss to the Beacons Jan. 15 at Renaissance Coliseum.

BY THE NUMBERS
1 – Freshman guard Caroline Waite enters Thursday's game as the top-scoring underclassman (Fr/So) in the Valley at 12.6 ppg.

7 – Bradley senior guard Tatum Koenig has scored in double figures in seven straight games, the longest double-digit scoring streak of her career.

14 – Bradley has utilized 14 different starting lineups this season, all in the last 16 games, the most of any team in the nation this year.

74 – Sunday's starting lineup accounted for 74 points, 96.1 percent of Bradley's total scoring, in the 77-67 win against Evansville.

SERIES HISTORY
17th Meeting | Bradley leads, 12-4
• Thursday's game will be the 17th in the all-time series between Bradley and Valparaiso.
• The Braves boast a 12-4 series advantage, including a 6-3 record versus the Beacons since Valparaiso joined the Missouri Valley Conference for the 2017-18 season.
• In her sixth year as Bradley head coach, Andrea Gorski is 7-3 against Valparaiso, while fourth-year Beacons head coach Mary Evans is 3-4 against Bradley.
• In the two previous years Valparaiso won the first game of the season series, the Braves bounced back with a win in the season's second meeting, including last year's COVID series split at the ARC.

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 Valparaiso.
• Senior guard Tatum Koenig has played in seven games against the Beacons, scoring 53 points (7.6 ppg) in 210 cumulative minutes.
• The other 14 Bradley student-athletes available Thursday night have combined for 17 individual games against Valparaiso, totaling 42 points in 195 cumulative series minutes.
• With Koenig, Bradley's cumulative series numbers are 24 individual games, 405 minutes and 95 points.
• On the other side, Valparaiso's roster includes 17 student-athletes who have played a combined 42 individual games against Bradley, accumulating 303 points in 955 minutes.

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 91 of her 108 career games, the other 14 student-athletes on the active roster have combined for 77 starts in 343 individual games played (24.5 games per player) at BU.
• While Koenig has logged 3,247 career minutes, the other 14 active Braves have combined for 4,067 minutes at Bradley.
Team Roster Games Starts Minutes
Bradley 15 451 168 7,314
Valparaiso 17 703 364 15,013

ROTATION OF STARTERS
• Bradley has used 14 different starting lineups this season, the most of any team in the nation.
• 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 14 of the last 16 games.
• The Braves may have found a lineup that could stick as Sunday's starting quintet - G Tatum Koenig, G Chloe Rice, G Caroline Waite, F Abbie Draper and F Sierra Morrow - combined for 74 points in the 77-67 win against Evansville.
The Nation's Most Starting Lineup Combinations
1. BRADLEY 14
2. Rutgers 12
3. Texas A&M 11
4. UMBC 10

LOOKING AHEAD
• Bradley will continue its weekend road swing through the Chicagoland by visiting Loyola Chicago Saturday afternoon.
• Saturday's game will be the last Missouri Valley Conference regular-season matchup between the Braves and Ramblers, who are departing the MVC for the Atlantic 10 Conference this summer.
• Despite a 48-41 loss Jan. 13 at Renaissance Coliseum, Bradley maintains a 29-18 lead in the all-time series against Loyola Chicago, which dates back to Nov. 30, 1979 (70-63 loss in Chicago).
• Following the visit to Gentile Arena, Bradley will return home to face Valley title contenders Southern Illinois Feb. 18 and Missouri State Feb. 20 at Renaissance Coliseum.

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