When the ball is tipped Thursday night at Assembly Hall, two first-year head coaches will be patrolling the sidelines for Illinois and Bradley.

While the coaches are new, the Illini and the Braves have been dueling for quite a while. Illinois has faced Bradley 12 times — seven times in the last 10 years — and the Illini lead the all-time series 10-2. Illinois has won the last two meetings between the programs, most recently defeating Bradley 73-51 in 2010.

In that victory, then-freshman Amber Moore scored 16 points and was 4-for-5 from the 3-point arc in her fourth collegiate game. The junior was also the leading scorer for the Illini in Sunday’s season-opening win over Evansville. Moore was 5-for-11 from three and finished with 19 points en route to the 84-52 victory.

“She is our kid who can stretch the defense,” Illinois head coach Matt Bollant said. “We want her shooting 10 threes a game, at least.”

Three-point shooting is an important part of Bollant’s up-tempo offense, Illinois was one 3-pointer shy of a school record with 11 on Sunday. The Illini have scored 89, 120 and 84 in their three competitions so far. The Illini have been running and practicing with a 10-second shot clock to condition for the up-tempo pace.

“It’s been rough, and that’s a good thing,” sophomore guard Ivory Crawford said. “It should be rough and tough for us.”

Like the Illini, the Braves run a fast-paced offense.

“They like to shoot the three, and they like to get up and down the court, so if they play like that, it should be a really fast game and a really exciting game,” Bollant said.

Bollant’s preparation for Bradley and other opponents is simple.

“Do what we do,” he said. “We focus a lot on us. We watched film and talked about their personnel and do those things, but we focus a lot on us and getting better.”

Defensive communication has been stressed in practice. Bollant said it was a weakness in the exhibition win over Concordia but said he saw improvement Sunday. The team has still been working on it at practice this week.

“It’s gotten better,” he said. “On the inbounds, we were significantly better (in Wednesday’s practice). We still have a ways to go, but we’re heading in the right direction.”

Crawford said she has noticed improvement in communication.

“It’s way better actually,” Crawford said. “I actually like the defense because instead of just sticking to your man, we’re switching more often, and as long as we have that communication, then we’re good.”

Bradley sits at 1-1 after its first two games. The Braves lost their season opener to Central Michigan on Friday, but they rebounded with a 66-65 victory over Eastern Illinois on Monday.

While Evansville and Bradley are both from the Missouri Valley, the teams are in drastically different situations. Evansville finished last in the conference last season at 5-25 while Bradley finished at 18-16. The Braves’ appearance in the Women’s Basketball Invitational marked their second postseason appearance in program history

“Bradley’s talented,” Bollant said. “They have a lot of good players. Their guards really shoot the ball. They get to the rim pretty well. They have a good team.”

Johnathan can be reached at [email protected] and @jhett93.