Braves Face #21 Green Bay On The Road

Daryl Wilson

Women's Basketball 12/14/2017 1:48:00 PM

PEORIA, Ill. – After a 10-day break for semester finals, Bradley Women's Basketball faces arguably its toughest test of the year so far Saturday afternoon, taking on 21st-ranked Green Bay in a 1 p.m. contest at the Kress Center in Green Bay, Wis.

Bradley (5-3 overall) last opened a season with a 5-3 record in 2012-13 and the Braves will be shooting for their first 6-3 start to a year since 2011-12 (9-3 overall). Saturday's contest against Green Bay, which is ranked 21st in the latest Associated Press Top 25, is BU's first game against a ranked team since hosting 24th-ranked Iowa on Dec. 19, 2015. In fact, the Phoenix is the highest ranked Bradley opponent dating back to a home contest against 17th-ranked Oklahoma on Nov. 22, 2015.

Saturday's game will be available on ESPN3 and can be viewed through WatchESPN.com and the WatchESPN app. In addition, Ed Hammond will handle the radio broadcast on WIRL 1290 AM with links to the audio stream available at BradleyBraves.com

At 5-3 on the year Bradley owns the best record in the Missouri Valley Conference and the Braves own the top RPI in the league through games of Dec. 11. Bradley's NCAA Division I opponents to date own a 35-29 record with five of the seven teams at .500 or better through Wednesday. BU's strength of schedule will certainly benefit from Saturday's outing at Green Bay (8-1 overall) with the Phoenix currently ranking fifth in the latest RPI report. Bradley's final three non-conference opponents remaining on the schedule have combined for a 23-6 (.793) record through Dec. 13.

After improving to 20-11 in the game before semester finals with last week's 67-52 victory at Eastern Illinois, Bradley will try to improve on its solid record in the first game after the finals break. Over the last 10 years, Bradley has won the game immediately following finals six times and the Braves are 19-11 over the last 30 years in such contests. Since the 1985-86 campaign, Bradley is 21-11 in the first game after the finals break.

The Braves will be making the eighth trip in program history to the state of Wisconsin and just the third since the 1995-96 season. Each of the last two trips to the Badger State have resulted in overtime games with Bradley falling in double overtime at Wisconsin-Milwaukee in the last trip to Wisconsin in 2012-13. The Braves pulled out a 72-70 overtime win at UWM in 2010-11. Bradley has posted a 3-4 record in the seven previous trips to Wisconsin.

Senior Anneke Schlueter scored a season-high 18 points to highlight last week's victory at Eastern Illinois as she moved up five spots on Bradley's career scoring list into the top 25. Schlueter was the first senior to lead the team in scoring this season. Last season she knocked down four three-pointers and scored 21 points in the home game against Green Bay. In eight career games against teams from the Horizon League Schlueter has scored in double figures six times with three efforts of 19 or more. She has averaged 14.1 points and 2.3 assists per game against Horizon League squads, while shooting 41.2 percent (21-for-51) from beyond the arc.

Saturday's game marks the only contest outside the state of Illinois for Bradley during an eight-game stretch and is the second of three games this season against teams from the Horizon League. The Braves have played three consecutive games in the state of Illinois since the Nov. 25 contest at Southeast Missouri State. Bradley is 10-7 in the last 17 games against Horizon League teams, including a 58-48 victory over Illinois-Chicago earlier this year.

Following Saturday's game, Bradley returns to Renaissance Coliseum to host Cleveland State Tuesday, Dec. 19 in the team's annual Field Trip game. Approximately 2,500 area school children are expected to attend the 11 a.m. matchup against the Vikings.

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