CEDAR FALLS, IOWA ? A three-pointer as time expired from Jacqui Kalin lifted Northern Iowa to a dramatic 72-70 victory over Drake on Sunday (Feb. 24) at the McLeod Center.

Trailing 70-69 with 1.2 seconds to play, Kalin broke free on the inbounds pass to catch and shoot the game-winner.

The setback drops Drake to 16-9 overall and 9-5 in the Missouri Valley Conference, while the Panthers improved to 11-15 on the year and 7-8 in league action.

“It doesn't come down to one play, it comes down to multiple plays and the last play of the game was an exclamation point on how we guarded in the game,” Drake head coach Amy Stephens said. “We didn't do a good job on rebounds and free throw shooting and we allowed Northern Iowa too many second-chance opportunities.”

Kalin led all scorers with 27 points, including five three-pointers. Four of her triples came in the second half, where the Panthers outscored the Bulldogs, 42-37.

Senior Lindsay Whorton (Independence, Mo./Truman) paced Drake with a 15-point effort. Joining her in double-figures was sophomore Monique' Jones (Lee's Summit, Mo./Lee's Summit north), senior Jill Martin (Norwalk, Iowa/Norwalk) and junior Lauren Dybing (Bloomington, Minn./St. Croix Lutheran) with 13, 12 and 11 tallies, respectively.

Drake was outrebounded in the affair, 35-32, including 17-10 on the offensive glass. The Bulldogs connected on just 66.7 percent of their free throws, hitting 16-of-24.

Drake finished the affair shooting 51 percent from the field, while Northern Iowa hit at a 39.3 percent clip.

The initial stanza was a back and forth affair as seven ties and three lead changes occurred with each side pushing out to five-point advantages in the first 20 minutes.

After a Nicole Clausen basket following the eight-minute media timeout put the Panthers up 21-19, the Bulldogs went on a 7-0 run to regain the lead. Fueling the surge with five of her 10 first-half points was Jones.

Northern Iowa rolled off five unanswered points of its own to square the contest at 26 before sophomore Jordann Plummer's (St. Louis, Mo./Cardinal Ritter) driving lay-up and free throw put Drake back on top, 29-26.

Plummer added another basket to send the Bulldogs into the intermission holding a 33-30 advantage. Drake drained 52 percent of its attempts in the initial stanza, while the Panthers stayed in the game despite just a 34.4 percent shooting mark. Northern Iowa remained in the game due in large part to 11 offensive rebounds in the first half.

After Martin scored the first basket of the second half, the Panthers rolled off an 11-0 run to assume a 41-35 lead.

Drake battled back to cut the margin to one, 42-41, on a pair of free throws by Martin, before Clausen drained a huge three-pointer in transition to give Northern Iowa a 45-41 lead.

The Panthers extended the lead on back-to-back triples by Kalin before the Bulldogs rallied back to regain the lead, 61-60, on a lay-up by Dybing with 3:47 remaining.

The two sides then exchanged baskets before Kalin's heroics.

The Bulldogs round out their home slate with a pair of contests next weekend with action getting underway with Drake hosting Indiana State on Friday (Feb. 29) at 7:07 p.m.