PEORIA, Ill. -- Bradley women's basketball will follow up the longest conference home stand in over 20 years by playing five of the next seven games on the road. The Braves open the stretch Friday with a 7 p.m. game at Wichita State and will finish off the two-game road swing Sunday (2 p.m.) at Missouri State.
The two-game road swing will mark Bradley's first back-to-back games outside the state of Illinois since the first two games of the 2015-16 season. The Braves have played six of the last eight games at Renaissance Coliseum and 16 of the last 20 contests in the state of Illinois.
Notes | ESPN3 | WIRL 1290 AM/102.7 FM | Live Stats | Twitter Updates (@BradleySIDLive)
Both games game will be available on ESPN3 as part of The Valley On ESPN3 and can be viewed through WatchESPN.com and the WatchESPN app. In addition, BradleyBraves.com will provide links to live stats along with the WIRL 1290 AM/102.7 FM (www.1290wirl.com) radio broadcast with Ed Hammond providing play-by-play.
Bradley and Wichita State are tied in the MVC standings with seven games left in the regular season and the Braves enter Friday's game trying to complete a regular-season season sweep of the Shockers after posting a 50-44 victory in the season's first meeting in Peoria back on Jan. 17. Wichita State holds a slim 35-31 edge in the all-time series and the Shockers are 20-12 at home against Bradley, but the Braves have won two of the last four games at Charles Koch Arena and three of the last seven road games overall.
Wichita State is the ninth opponent in the last 10 games for Bradley to enter the game off a loss. Friday's matchup with the Shockers features two of the top defensive teams in the conference with Wichita State third in the league in scoring defense at 62.2 points per game and Bradley ranking fourth at 62.9 points allowed per outing.
Missouri State heads into a Friday home contest against Loyola tied with the Ramblers and Northern Iowa for second in the Valley standings at 8-3. Bradley is 2-3 in the last five trips to Springfield, Mo., and the Braves are 4-5 in road games in the series over the last nine seasons.
Sophomore Anneke Schlueter (Ulm, Germany/Max-Weber-Schule) has turned in some of the best performances of her young career against teams from the state of Missouri. In fact, she enters Sunday's game at Missouri State with a career 14.3 points-per-game average against the Lady Bears. In six career games against teams from the Show-Me State, Schlueter has averaged 13.0 points per game on 55 percent shooting, 2.8 rebounds, 1.8 assists and 1.5 steals.
Fellow sophomore Tamya Sims (Milwaukee, Wis./Oak Creek) collected five blocks Sunday at Southern Illinois as she broke her own Renaissance Coliseum season mark by pushing her home block total in 2015-16 to 24. Sims has joined Dena Williams as the only players in program history to collect 40 or more blocks in each of their first two seasons on The Hilltop. She is now eighth in school in career blocks at 87 and needs two more to take over sole possession of sixth all-time, while her 42 blocks this season is tied for the 10th-best total in Bradley history.
After the two-game road swing, the Braves return to Renaissance Coliseum to open the final home stand of the year, Friday, Feb. 19 with a 7 p.m. game against Indiana State.
