Tuesday, December 20, 2011

IOWA CITY, Iowa - The Drake University women's basketball team fell behind Iowa early and couldn't recover en route to a 71-46 defeat Tuesday night at Carver-Hawkeye Arena. The loss, Drake's most lopsided of the season, snapped a four-game winning streak and evened the Bulldogs' record at 5-5 on the season.

The Hawkeyes (7-5) made their first five shots, and six of their first seven, to jump out to a quick 11-4 lead. Iowa maintained momentum offensively and held Drake to just 15 first-half points on the defensive end, the third-fewest in any half in program history.

"You expect that kind of effort from a team coming off a loss like they were," said head coach Amy Stephens. "They got after it tonight."

Iowa held its intensity in a low-scoring second half to keep Drake at bay. The Hawkeye lead never dipped below 18 as Iowa surged to a 71-46 victory.

"Coming off four-straight wins, tonight was almost like three steps forward, one step back," Stephens said. "We'll take some things from this game and work on them."

Senior Rachael Hackbarth led all scorers with 17 points, adding 10 rebounds to log her sixth double-double of the season. Redshirt freshman Carly Grenfell (York, Neb./York) totaled eight points on 3-of-6 shooting. Senior Amber Wollschlager (Milbank, S.D./Milbank) totaled six points in her first trip to Iowa City since putting up a career-high 19 as a sophomore Dec. 20, 2009.

Iowa's Jaime Printy led the Hawks with 16 points. Samantha Logic totaled 12 points and a team-high six boards. Iowa posted 10 players in the scoring column.

"The good thing about this is that we don't have to sit on it during Christmas break," Stephens added. "We get to play right away."

The Bulldogs host Loyola of Chicago Thursday night at 5:05 p.m.