Braves Finish Home Stand Sunday Against Loyola

Women's Basketball 2/3/2018 12:16:00 PM

PEORIA, Ill. – Bradley Women's Basketball will try to sweep the regular-season series from Loyola for the second consecutive year and third time in four seasons when the Braves wrap up a season-long, four-game home stand Sunday afternoon with a 1 p.m. matchup against the Ramblers at Renaissance Coliseum.

A 69-58 victory Friday over Valparaiso gave Bradley (11-10 overall, 5-5 MVC) its first Missouri Valley Conference home victory of the season as the Braves opened the second half of league play with a win for the third consecutive year. Bradley held on to sixth play in the MVC standings and a win Sunday against Loyola (4-17 overall, 2-8 MVC) would move the Braves within a half game of fifth-place Indiana State.

Bradley won all three matchups with Loyola last year, including a 57-42 victory in the opening round of the 2017 MVC Tournament in Moline, Ill., and has won four straight against the Ramblers. The Braves edged Loyola 59-57 in the season's first meeting back on Jan. 5 in Chicago, thanks in part to a then season-high 17 points from senior Danielle Brewer and 15 points by junior Vanessa Markert. Bradley owns a 23-15 advantage in the series and the Braves are 12-4 at home against Loyola, which includes a 10-1 record in the last 11 home contests dating back to the 1993-94 season.

Sunday's game against the Ramblers will be available on ESPN3 as part of the MVC media rights agreement with ESPN. The Valley On ESPN3 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

Bradley will play on Super Bowl Sunday for the fifth consecutive year and eighth time in the last 10 seasons. The Braves are 5-5 all-time when playing on the same day as the Super Bowl after a 54-41 home victory over Indiana State last season and own a 3-2 record when playing at home on the day of the big game.

Markert had 15 points on 6-of-13 in the season's first meeting with Loyola and turned in arguably the strongest performance of her career in last year's home game with the Ramblers, scoring 26 points on 10-of-14 shooting. She has scored in double figures in each of the last three regular-season matchups with Loyola, averaging 17.0 points, 3.7 rebounds and nearly three blocks per game while shooting 60 percent from the field (21-of-35) in those outings. The junior is closing in on the top 50 in career scoring at Bradley with her 571 career points leaving her 28 from the top 50.

Bradley held Valparaiso to just 14 first-half points on 18.2 percent shooting (6-for-33) in Friday's victory. Valpo's 14 points ranks as the fifth-fewest points given up by the Braves in program history and was one point more than the lowest scoring half in Renaissance Coliseum history (13 points by Eureka on Nov. 28, 2015). Last season Loyola scored 16 points in the first half of the game at Renaissance Coliseum (Feb. 3, 2017) and the Braves also turned in the best defensive half in school history last year (at Indiana State – 12 points on Jan. 6, 2017).

Freshman Gabi Haack turned in her second double-double of the season Friday against Valparaiso, collecting 13 points and a season-best 11 rebounds. Haack has scored in double figures a team-best 11 times this season, including seven of the last eight contests. The last Bradley freshman to score in double figures at least 11 times was Katie Yohn (16) in 2009-10. Over the last eight games, Haack has averaged 12.9 points, 7.0 rebounds and 2.0 assists per game. She currently leads the team in scoring at 9.7 points per game as she tries to become just the third freshman in program history to lead the team in scoring (Yohn in 2009-10 & Connie Griffith in 1977-78).

Bradley can match last season's overall win total with a victory Sunday against Loyola, entering the game with an 11-10 overall mark. The Braves have won 11 or more games in back-to-back seasons for the first time since 2011-12 (18) and 2012-13 (14). Second-year head coach Andrea Gorski has joined Joe Stowell as the only coaches in program history to guide the team to 11 or more wins in each of their first two seasons as head coach of the Braves. Stowell, who coached the Bradley women's team to 33 victories in his two seasons (1981-82 & 1982-83), and Gorski are the only Bradley graduates to have coached the Braves.

With an 11-10 record heading into Sunday's matchup against Loyola the Braves have a chance to win 12 games before mid-February for the first time since 2011-12. In fact, a win Sunday against the Ramblers would mark just the 11^th time Bradley would have 12 or more victories on or before Feb. 4. While the Braves have done so 10 times previously, BU has had 12 or more wins on or before Feb. 4 just three times in the last 20 years (2011-12, 2008-09 & 2001-02) and six times in the last 35 seasons.

Bradley's 5-5 start to MVC play is the team's best record 10 games into the league slate since opening the 2009-10 Valley slate with a 7-3 record. The Braves have 11 previous conference starts of 5-5 or better, but only two in the last 20 years. Head Coach Andrea Gorski and her teams started out 5-5 or better to conference play each of her four seasons as a student-athlete from 1988-89 through the 1991-92 season.

Bradley plays four of the next six games on the road, opening the stretch Friday, Feb. 9 with a 7 p.m. game at Missouri State.

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