ST. CHARLES, MO. ? Drake broke open a one-point contest with a 12-2 second-half run and staved off a late Indiana State rally to collect a 65-59 victory on Friday (March 14) in the quarterfinals of the State Farm Missouri Valley Conference Tournament at Family Arena.
The win sets up the Bulldogs for semifinal meeting with Evansville for the second consecutive year as Drake will tangle with the Purple Aces on Saturday (March 15) at 3:35 p.m. The affair will be televised live on FSN Midwest.
The Blue and White improved to 21-9 overall with the victory, while Indiana State finished its campaign at 14-15.
Sparking the run for Drake was four points apiece from senior Lindsay Whorton (Independence, Mo./Truman), junior Lauren Dybing (Bloomington, Minn./St. Croix Lutheran) and sophomore Monique' Jones (Lee's Summit, Mo./Lee's Summit North).
The scoring push extended a 46-45 lead with 5:01 remaining to give the Blue and White a 58-47 advantage with 2:11 left in the contest.
The Bulldogs sealed the contest at the charity stripe where Drake connected on seven free throws to secure the triumph.
“Tonight was a very hard-fought, spirited contest as both teams were extremely aggressive and we knew we needed to be more aggressive in we wanted to win,” Drake head coach Amy Stephens said. “We did a great job on the boards, but I thought Lauren (Dybing) was phenomenal tonight.”
Jones paced the Bulldogs with 16 points, while sophomore Jordann Plummer (St. Louis, Mo./Cardinal Ritter), senior Jill Martin (Norwalk, Iowa/Norwalk), Whorton and Dybing added 14, 13, 12 and 10 points, respectively.
Martin registered her league-leading 13th double-double of the season as she pulled down a game-high 13 rebounds to go along with her 13 points.
Laura Rudolphi led three Sycamores in double-figures with an 18-point performance. Angela Phillips and Leah Phillips contributed 15 and 10 points for Indiana State.
With her second three-point attempt in the tilt, Whorton surpassed Creighton's Dayna Finch's (2001-04) 766 career three-point attempts to become the all-time leader in the MVC in the category. Whorton will enter play versus Evansville having attempted 772 career triples.
The Bulldogs finished the contest shooting 42.9 percent from the floor, while holding the Sycamores to a 38.1 percent shooting mark.
Drake won the contest on the strength of its rebounding as the Bulldogs outrebounded Indiana State, 45-32, including 13-8 on the offensive glass.
