EVANSVILLE, IND. - Career games from freshmen
Stephanie Running (Oak Creek, Wis.) and
Katie Schechinger (Manilla, Iowa) helped the Drake women's basketball team hang with Evansville, but a four-minute second half scoring barrage by senior
Jordann Plummer (St. Louis, Mo.) propelled the Bulldogs to a 67-53 Missouri Valley Conference victory Saturday.
Plummer, who is Drake's leader scorer on the season with a 16.6 average, had missed her first six shots of the game before making her first basket with 5:53 left in the game.
With Drake clinging to a 46-45 lead, Plummer took over by hitting four baskets, including a trey, that triggered a 21-8 run by the Bulldogs to close out the game.
“Jordann (Plummer) took over the last six minutes. She is going to get our opponent's best defenders and be face guarded,” Drake head coach
Amy Stephens said. “But today we showed we are more than
Jordann Plummer. We had several people step up and show that we are not a one dimensional team.”
Running scored a career-high seven points in a personal-best 24 minutes of playing time. Schechinger tallied eight points in 17 minutes, both also career-bests.
Senior forward
Monique' Jones (Lee's Summit, Mo.) had nine points in the first 13 minutes, leading the Bulldogs to a 22-18 lead.
Jones and
Amber Wollschlager (Milbank, S.D.) led the charge in the first half, scoring 21 of Drake's 34 points.
Wollschlager finished with a game-high 18 points, one short of her career best.
Plummer was held to one point in the first half, her lowest point total in any half this season. Plummer finished with 12 points, while displaying a steady floor game with seven assists and four steals.
Jones finished with 11 points, four rebounds, four steals and four assists.
The win, Drake's fourth-straight against Evansville, move the Bulldogs to 11-5 overall, including a 4-2 league mark while matching last year's record through six MVC games.
The Bulldogs return home to face in-state rival Northern Iowa Friday with the game televised on Fox Sports Midwest starting at 7:35 p.m.
