Braves Close Road Swing At Northern Illinois

Daryl Wilson

Women's Basketball 11/28/2017 10:26:00 AM

PEORIA, Ill. -- Bradley Women's Basketball will close out a season-long, four-game road swing against a familiar non-conference opponent, with the Braves traveling to DeKalb, Ill., Wednesday for a 6 p.m. matchup against Northern Illinois.

Wednesday's outing at NIU's Convocation Center kicks off a stretch of three consecutive games against in-state foes and Bradley will play seven of the next eight games in the state of Illinois.

The midweek matchup with Northern Illinois (4-2 overall) will be available on ESPN3. In addition, Ed Hammond will handle the radio broadcast on WIRL 1290 AM with links to the audio stream available at BradleyBraves.com

The series with Northern Illinois is the longest active non-conference series for the Braves (3-2 overall) with Bradley and NIU meeting for the 12th consecutive season. The Huskies have won the last four matchups to take an 11-7 lead in the series. The last three meetings in DeKalb, Ill., have been decided by five points or less and five of the six all-time games played between BU and Northern Illinois at the Convocation Center have had a final margin of six points or fewer.

Bradley nearly completed a rally from 17 points down last time out at Southeast Missouri State Saturday in the championship game of the SEMO Thanksgiving Classic, taking a lead in the closing minutes only to have the Redhawks score the final five points to top the Braves 57-53. Junior Vanessa Markert helped fuel BU's second half rally with 13 points and five rebounds after halftime as she finished with game highs of 17 points and eight rebounds to go with a career-best three steals. Sophomore Chelsea Brackmann scored 11 points in 13 minutes despite battling foul trouble throughout the contest.

The Braves rank fourth in the Missouri Valley Conference in scoring at 69.4 points per game, but it has been the defense that has been key to the early-season success for Bradley. Through games of Nov. 26, BU ranks second in the nation in three-point field goal percentage defense with the Braves limiting teams to just 19 percent shooting from beyond the arc. Only one of five opponents this season has shot better than 30 percent from three-point range and Bradley has held its last 10 regular-season opponents dating back to last season to a combined 23.9 percent three-point shooting and an average of just 3.9 triples per game.

Bradley has held opponents to 59.2 points per game to rank third in the MVC in scoring defense on the young season and BU's +10.2 average scoring margin leads The Valley. In addition, the Braves have averaged a league-best 43.4 rebounds per game and rank second in the MVC with a 1.00 assist-to-turnover ratio after posting an 0.84 assist-to-turnover ratio last year.

With the next three games against in-state opponents, Bradley will look to continue a common trend. The Braves have posted at least one non-conference win against an in-state foe in 29 of the last 30 years and are 54-35 (.607) against non-conference squads from Illinois dating back to 1995-96. Bradley has owned a .500 record of better against in-state non-conference opponents in five of the last seven seasons and seven of the last 10 years.

Markert had a double-double in last year's meeting with Northern Illinois, turning in 14 points, 11 rebounds, two assists and two blocks against the Huskies. She currently leads the team in scoring at 11.0 points per game and is averaging 2.0 blocks per contest.

Following Wednesday's game at Northern Illinois, Bradley returns to Renaissance Coliseum to face Illinois-Chicago Saturday in a 2 p.m. contest.

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