DES
MOINES, Iowa - A strong defensive effort combined with 13
points from Morgan Reid (Kansas
City, Mo.) and seven assists from Alyssa Marschner (Plymouth, Minn.) helped the Drake
University women's basketball team defeat Saint Louis, 61-55, at the Knapp
Center Friday evening.
"Today I really saw something from our team," Drake head
coach Jennie Baranczyk said. "I saw
a lot of improvement in our players particularly in Alyssa [Marschner] and
Morgan [Reid].
The Drake (4-6) defense forced 22 Saint Louis (5-7)
turnovers while converting at a 46.9 percent clip on the offensive end to spoil
former Drake head coach Lisa Stone's return to the Knapp Center. SLU was led by
Lorreal Jones 15 points and seven rebounds.
After taking a 25-22 deficit into the locker room, the
Bulldogs opened the second stanza on a 13-3 run capped by back-to-back-to-back
three-pointers from Kyndal Clark (Webb
City, Mo.), Carly Grenfell (York, Neb.) and Mary Pat Specht (Shawnee, Kan.) to take a 35-28 lead six minutes into the half.
Grenfell and Clark finished with 12 and 10 points, respectively, with Clark
adding four assists and three steals.
"The biggest thing we stressed at halftime was to control
what we could control," Baranczyk said. "We had to control the tempo and if can
do that we can win games."
SLU countered with a 9-2 spurt over the next four minutes
to tie the game before the Bulldogs, energized by the home crowd, reasserted
that tempo and quickly extended its lead back to five points, 42-37, on a
three-pointer from Clark and a layup for Reid.
"The last eight minutes of the game we really stepped it
up and played great team basketball," Baranczyk said. "We did a much better job
on 50-50 balls and stepped up and hit our free throws."
While the Drake offense continued to score points, the
defense was the star of the second half by holding SLU to just 41.4 percent
shooting and 25 percent from the three-point arc.
Drake put itself in position for the win with just under
three minutes to play on a beautifully executed and uncontested layup from Reid
off of Marschner's seventh assist of the night. SLU took a time out to regroup,
but the defense forced another turnover to keep the Billikens' offense at bay.
In the final minute Drake clung to a 55-53 lead before
Clark got a driving layup that was matched by SLU on its ensuing possession.
With less than 20 seconds to play and SLU forced to foul, Drake was a perfect
4-of-4 from the free throw line to extend its lead to two possessions. The
Bulldogs were a nearly flawless 10-of-12 from the line on the evening.
SLU's final attempt to tie the game was thwarted by
Marschner who deflected a pass on the wing and corralled the ball at midcourt
as time expired.
Drake will take a break for the holidays and will next play on the road at Milwaukee on Saturday, Dec. 29th at 3 p.m. Ric
Silvestrini will call the action on 1350-KRNT and live stats will be available
at www.godrakebulldogs.com.
